After work yesterday I went to Barnes and Noble and bought The Last Lecture. I started reading my book when I got to lover’s place. He was playing video games so I figured I’d start my new book. I was so excited. It’s only about 200 pages so I got through more than half of it yesterday. So far, I really like the book. I learned about Randy’s life, to follow your dreams, your dreams do come but sometimes not in the way you expect it to be, and enabling others to follow their’s is indeed a good feeling. Here are his childhood dreams:

• Being in zero gravity
  “But I did manage to get on that plane, almost four decades after floating became one of my life goals. It just proves that if you can find an opening, you can probably find a way to float through it“
• Playing in the NFL (he never made it to the NFL)
  “When you’re screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they’ve given up on you.”
• Authoring an article in the World Book Encyclopedia
  “But Sometimes when I’m in the library with the kids, I still can’t resist looking under “V” (”Virtual Reality” by yours truly) and letting them have a look. Their dad made it.“
• Being Captain Kirk (Star Trek)
  “It’s cool to meet your boyhood idol, but it’s almost indescribaby cooler when he comes to you to see cool stuff you’re doing in your lab.“
• Winning stuff animals
  “One of my earliest childhood dreams was to be the coolest guy at any amusement park or carnival I visited…The coolest guy was easy to spot: He was the one walking around with the largest stuff animal.“
• Being a Disney Imagineer
  “I ended up being allowed to take that sabbatical, and it was a fantasy come true. In fact I have a confession. This is exactly how geeky I am: Soon after I arrived in California, I hopped into my convertible and drove over to Imagineering headquarters. It was a hot summer night, and I had the soundtrack to Disney’s The Lion King blasting on my stereo. Tears actually began streaming down my face as I drove past the building. Here I was, the grown-up version of that wide-eyed eight-year-old at Disneyland. I had finally arrived. I was an Imagineer.“

While my love played his video games he could hear me laugh from time to time and asked me what is going on. When I told him the part that I just read that made me laugh, he laughed too. In fact, last night when I got home from his cousin’s place, I told him about the latest chapters I’ve read. He said that maybe he should read this book, too!

I have so many favorite parts of the book already. But here’s one I will point out. Randy was still unmarried during his twenties and thirties. So the apple of his eye was pretty much his niece and nephew. There was one time when he picked them up in brand new convertible. His sister was telling her kids to be careful, don’t get the car dirty, and all that. While she was outlining the rules to her kids, Randy took a can of soda, opened it, and poured it in the back seat. And he says, “My message: People are more important than things. A car, even a prisitine gem like my new convertible, was just a thing.”

“I ended up being so glad I’d spilled that soda. Because later in the weekend, little Chris got the flu and threw up all over the backseat. He didn’t feel guilty. He was relieved; he had already watch me christen the car. He knew it would be OK.”

So if you’re thinking of reading a book and don’t know what. Read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

Tags: Captain Kirk, childhood dreams, Disney, dreams, Imagineer, love, NFL, Randy Pausch, stuff animals, The Last Lecture, Virtual Reality, World Book Encyclopedia, zero gravity

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