The Last Lecture

If you were diagnosed with cancer, and you knew you only had a certain amount of time to live, what should you do? How would you prepare yourself and those around you?

In my 9th grade English class, we read "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. We watched the shortened video in class, and then had a writing assignment to answer eight questions. If you ever want to find what your truly about, I'd highly recommend reading the book, then answering these questions. Better yet, answer them now, THEN read the book, and answer them again. 

Now, don't just answer them rhetorically. Write them down! If anything, it gives your posterity something to read, but it can also enhance your experience. Maybe it's just because I like to write, but I think it's so much more effective. It's part of the process in thinking deeply enough to put your emotions in to words, then record them.

Anyway, here are the questions:

1) How does reflecting on the past change the future?

2) What are your defining values?

3)What advice would you leave the world?

4) How do you embrace your life? How can you make every day count?

5) What makes you unique? How do you feel about these unique qualities?

6) What are your dreams? How will you achieve your dreams?

7) How do you deal with adversity? What's a healthy way to hand it?

8) If you had to sum up your life in a sentence what would it be? What's your defining statement?

When I first answered these questions, my answers seemed deep and personal to me. It was satisfying to transform them into words, and think a little deeper about it. But the next day, I read through what I had written, and I didn't understand why it had been so "satisfying". Was it simply because I was in a different mood, or would my answers have been that different if I had waited 12 hours to write them? How different will your/my answers be in 10+ years?

The Last Lecture Video: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo