Randy Pausch reprising his "Last Lecture"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8577255250907450469#

Year 4s had a kind of Career Talk by the School Counsellor for ACE...during the talk, this short 12 minute video was played...and it has a deep impact on me....and I really hope on the kids as well...

This man when he was talking was just a couple of years younger than me....he died... but his lecture left a legacy, a legacy he intended for his 3 kids...when they grow up, which he will never see...He didnt complain, why me? He said life dealt this hand to him, and the lecture was not about death, but about life, how to live it.....

To me, it wasnt that he reached this stage, months left to live, to say these words....he has lived his life, therefore he could give this lecture. True the impact of death coming to himself must have been deep and for such a feeling and thoughtful man, painful. But his courage soars....and it did not come overnight, but a lifetime of building up....

When I was a teenager, I attended a 'church camp' where every group had to put up a skit, and I hate skits. Nevertheless, I came up with the idea that the skit be on a girl left with only a short time to live, what would she say or do. I remembered often after that, I wondered to myself, why is it that people must wait until that moment, to reminisce and ratify....and i reminded myself oft to live each day as though that may be the last.

During the period of SARS, when the newspapers were filled with sad news day after day, I was not teaching then, but I was quite taken aback by the immensity of how many died, and the fear that begin to grip the people then. I remembered reading an article then about Israel and there was this quote by a mother in Israel. She said, she never allowed her children to walk out of the house angry with one another, because in Israel where there is constant war, one can never tell when you will see the person last alive...

I quoted that to sk when she got mad with zg and zl (with good cause), I said to her, be thankful everynite your sons come back well...Hence I am also careful to settle 'accounts' each day.... so that should the last breath comes unexpectedly, I would not regret that I had not done this or that...

There are many things that Randy Puasch said that is really strike the inner chords, especially the clear distinction between a thing and life...this is highly recommended to be an ensample of how one should live and really he is a pioneer, achiever, thinker, humanitarian...I would wish many of my students would learn his ...I dont need them to be great, I only need them to learn to live, and live well, and live for others....just as I wish to do the same....