Wednesday, June 22, 2011

My last post as Teenager!

As the title suggests, I am writing this post in the few final moments left of my so-called teenage. I am far away from my family and friends. Of course, I have made the new friends here. But, still old is gold.
I would say I have spent my final few hours of teenage in a wonderful way. I watched "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch. It was shared in facebook. I have taken to watching every video shared by friends since coming to Germany. So, I started watching it and I could not just stop in the middle though the lecture was one hour and fifteen minutes long. Boy oh Boy, I could not just stop. It was just so absorbing. The topic of the lecture was Achieving your childhood dreams. One must really watch it to feel the difference. For a man who knows his own death, he was very positive and inspiring.
There was this one sentence which I liked the most. "When you hit a brick wall, remember they are there to show you how badly you want it. They are there to stop those who do not want it as badly as you want it. They are there for others." These sentences made me think about my own life until now. I remembered the brick walls I had faced, the brick walls that had defeated me and brick walls I had scaled over successfully. Yeah, indeed these brick walls show us our dedication.
This summer in Europe is a classic example. After facing brick walls one after the other, I am having the time of my life in Germany now. It was all worth facing the brick walls. I have admired and learnt so many things from people and their culture here. This might be one of the most beautiful memories of my life.
When I look back, I am very happy at the way things have turned up for me until now. The future looks promising enough. With the teenage officially over, I am going to try and grow up a little bit, be a little more responsible and act a little more mature.
This reminds me of another sentence from Randy's lecture. "Never lose the child like wonder. Its just too important. It is what that drives us." This lecture has really inspired me. I cannot stop thinking about his words and contemplating about it.

About Randy Pausch:
Randolph Frederick "Randy" Pausch(October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) was an American professor of computer science and human computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pausch learned that he had pancreatic cancer in September 2006, and in August 2007 he was given a terminal diagnosis: 3 to 6 months of good health left. He gave an upbeat lecture titled "The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" on September 18, 2007, at Carnegie Mellon. He, then co-authored a book called The Last Lecture on the same theme. Pausch died of complications from pancreatic cancer on July 25, 2008.
Click Here to watch The Last Lecture.

2 comments:

  1. Indeed a great lecture Gayathri! I had always felt that childhood dreams are more of a sandbox. We pick up varieties and imagine incredible. Eventually one of them turns out to be our career. Nice post :)

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  2. Nice post Gayathri...:) childhood dreams remain preserved in our heart always. We never know whether those dreams are possible or not. Some may be crazy enough to make us laugh when we grow older and look back. But it doesn't matter. Just pursue the dreams and you would get something more valuable than anything else - ExperiencE. 'HEAD FAKES' as Randy Pausch says. Learn to identify them and the Life will look Beautiful...:) by the way... Belated Wishes:):):)

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