The Poppi Chronicles

On September 18, 2007 professor Randy Pausch, a Computer Science professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh stepped in front of an audience of 400 people to deliver his last lecture entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.” With slides of his CT scans filling the screen at the front of the lecture hall, Professor Rausch told his audience about the cancer that was attacking his pancreas – a cancer that he knew would claim his life in a matter of months. He was right.  Professor Rausch lost his battle to pancreatic cancer ten months later, on July 25th, 2008. He was 47 years old

Professor Rausch’s “Last Lecture” became a phenomenon, as did the book he wrote based on the same principles; a celebration of dreaming and working to make those dreams reality.

I often think about Randy Pausch and his deceptively simple message:  live your life in constant pursuit of your dreams.  The unspoken assumption, of course, is that each of us actually have dreams; that we have taken time to step outside the pressures and burdens of everyday survival to dream!

I am not all that convinced of the validity of that assumption.

I know that we all did some dreaming when we were growing up.  Dreaming is so much easier when we’re young, isn’t it?  First of all, those pressures and burdens that I mentioned haven’t quite materialized.  Youthful dreams aren’t burdened by the inescapable realities of life.  When we’re young we see the world in a beautifully uncluttered way – no workplace, no politics, no crab grass, no family budgets to balance, no “shoulds” – and in that 20/20 panorama we are free to dream of virtually any future for ourselves.  And we all take full advantage of the opportunity, letting our hearts dictate the paths our dreams take.

When I was young, I dreamt of becoming a baseball player.  Each night I would fall asleep dreaming of becoming the next Mickey Mantle – hitting homeruns and winning ball games.  Sometimes, I would have those same dreams during the day.  I still can remember my childhood dreams.  I remember how great it felt when, if just for a moment, I left reality behind and lived for just a fleeting second in my dreams.  I think I hit 10,000 homeruns when I was young.

And then we get older.  We marry and have children.  We face daily pressures to perform at work and at home.  We become focused on surviving each day as best we can.  We have MasterCard, Visa, American Express bills.  Our world fills up with the “shoulds” that come with growing up.  Children “should” get bathed every night; dinner “should” be made every day; girls “should” take ballet and boys “should” play soccer, or the other way around.  And the list goes on and on.  The idea of taking time out of your day to actually dream seems really ludicrous, doesn’t it?

Life is very unpredictable.  Professor Pausch didn’t “get it” until it was nearly too late.  But the shock of being given an “end” date to his life forced him to look beyond his terminal prognosis.  He spent what life he had left spreading the word that dreaming and working on making those dreams a reality, was a critically important thing to do.  His message, though centered on dreaming was actually one of hope!  Remember what Cinderella said: “A dream is a wish your heart makes”.  None of us wants to come to the end of our journey with a long list of “things I wish I had done”.  The first step to shortening that list is to dream about the things you would like to do, now!

Once you have your dreams work on making your dreams come true.  I have the unique and beautiful good fortune to be living with someone, your Grandmother that is truly living her dream!  I watch the smile on her face when she opens her eyes each morning, when she comes home from work, when we meet in the middle of her work day for lunch and when she goes to sleep each night.  It is extremely contagious!

Make time to dream, Wesley.  And then work on making your dreams come true.