Book 09-08: The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture (Randy Pausch) was what I expected it to be- uberly sentimental. What do you expect from a dying man who is knowledgeable that he only has 3 months to live? I love it. It made me cry. I remember reading it while waiting in a public utility vehicle and I was reading this very sad part and I wanted to cry so bad but I can't because there were other people in the PUV. I had to hold back the tears or else people might think I'm some psycho on the loose.

Death scares me. Not my own death. The death of loved ones. It's just that I don't think I can cope after a loved one's demise. I don't think I am well-equipped with the coping mechanism to do so. It's easier to be the one who leaves than being the one who gets left behind. Remember The Time Traveler's Wife? I feel sad whenever the author tells his audience (or in my case, reader) that he won't be there for his kids while they're growing up, that he won't be there to help his wife during the angst-ridden teenage years of their children's lives and also that his kids will not have a solid memory of him as they were all very young when he died. In its regular run, life is already considered short. What if it's cut shorter by some kind of disease or accident? They say we must tell our loved ones that we love them because we don't know when it will be the last time. I still have to work on that.

The author also shared the valuable lessons he learned in his life. The most recurrent was this: The brick walls are there for a reason. They're not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They're there to stop the other people. That's how he treated his setbacks. I admired him for pursuing all his life's dreams and not letting such setbacks disillusion him. And that's something I have to instill in myself. I tend to get disillusioned very quickly. Even with minor setbacks, I tend to brush it off and say 'Oh well, maybe it's not really meant for me,' and I guess doing that won't get me anywhere. But now I am well aware of the purpose these wall bricks serve.

Once in a while, we're reminded of how fast time can swoosh by. So to all master procrastinators like moi, let us all be reminded that: Time is all you have. And you may find one day that you have less than you think.