This week we were assigned to read an article titled "Transcript of Randy Pausch's Last Lecture". Even though I have never heard of him or his accomplishments before I read the article, it was a neat experience to read his last lecture and learn about not only his successes, but of his failures as well. Throughout the entire lecture he would talk about how he always tried to follow his passions to accomplish his life dreams and goals.
As a child he visited Disneyland and he knew that he not only wanted to experience what he experienced at Disneyworld, but he wanted to make things like that as well. So he soon got a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon and sent letters of application to Disneyworld thinking that he had everything he needed to be accepted there. Even with his dream, his passion, and his qualifications, we wasn't.
This in one of the many life examples he gives during his lecture, but this experience stood out to me in a profound way. When I first read this I thought, "Even the Ph.D. didn't work? How did he not just quit?" You would think that if you worked most of your life towards something and suddenly it means nothing, then you would seriously start to doubt whether you took the right course in life or not. But instead of thinking this Randy Pausch moves on and refers to this little occurrence a 'brick wall'. I quote him directly:
"But remember, brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls art there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough." (Randy Pausch, Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams pg. 8)
Randy never stopped trying to achieve his childhood dreams no matter how many brick walls laid in his path. So inspirational.
My mother has always referred to me as 'the dreamer' out of all her children. This is because I have always had a vivid imagination and many dreams since I was little. One of the first goals I can remember having was that of owning a horse when I had enough money. After my horse back riding instructor jokingly said one day when I was seven, "If you want to spend a million dollars, own a horse!", reality made me realize that I would have to accomplish something like winning the lottery before I could ever own a horse. My fragile little dream was crushed.
Despite the sudden realization of this and the inevitable emotional devastation that followed, I soon realized that even though owning a horse would be very expensive that didn't mean that I couldn't one one if I ever had the means to do so. To this day I still remain hopeful of owning a horse one day, although it probably won't happen until retirement. As long as it happens some time before the end of my life then I'm content.
A few years later I had a dream of opening a cafe with my mother where I would sell baked goods and she would sell loaves of her homemade bread. I would draw floor plans, research the prices of all the industrial equipment I would need, and come up with menus for my little cafe that would open on my neighborhood block once the shop on the corner went out of business. This plan seemed like an ideal one for a long time until my mother taught me how to sew when I was thirteen years old. Since I learned how to sew dresses from patterns I switched my dream from owning a cafe to owning a dress boutique.
What I'm trying to say is that my life has been very enriched from having a dream of opening up my own shop. I feel that most people I talk to see my dreams as fantasies to give me hope for something better. But I see my dreams as my ultimate life goals that bring me feelings of hope and happiness. To me having dreams gives me a positive outlook on my life. It keeps me going through both the good times and a bad. I am willing to do whatever it takes to make my dreams become reality, no matter how many brick walls try to prevent me from doing so. I don't know the specifics, but I know there are going to be many good things that happen on my journey, but I will also have many trials as well because, heaven forbid, there must be opposition in all things. Even with this I welcome both my blessings and my trials. I intend to treat life as an experiment. An experiment wouldn't be called an experiment if there was so trial and error, and out lives work the very same way.
Dreams are important. Don't let anyone tell you that your dreams are foolish or unrealistic. With God's help, you can do anything, as long as you set your mind to it and work hard for it.
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