Randy Pausch's Charge to the Class of 2008
His Thoughts on Beating Death and Living Well
Dr. Randy Pausch took time off his fight against terminal pancreatic cancer and flew to Pittsburgh with his wife, Jai, on the invitation of his university, Carnegie Mellon (CMU).
He was there to attend CMU’s Commencement Ceremony on 18 May 2008, and he had the honor of delivering the charge to the Class of 2008 at the end of the ceremony.
Like the ‘Last Lecture’ he gave in September 2007, his charge was similarly inspirational and full of insights into living well. He was greeted with a standing ovation by his colleagues and the graduates before and after the charge.
Lessons from the Charge:
- To live well, a person must first be grateful for being alive.
- Being alive and living longer does not mean that one has beaten death (although Dr. Pausch has already beaten the odds of survival for terminal pancreatic cancer by three months and counting).
- The unchanging fact is that death (referred to as 'the Grim Reaper' by Dr. Pausch) will come for every single one of us.
- What matters more are the things that a person does between the time of his/her birth and the time one dies.
- To beat the Grim Reaper, a person has to live well and live fully.
- To live well, a person must follow his/her heart and passion, and do what he/she is excited about.
- If a person has not found his/her passion yet, he/she should continue searching for it.
- A person should never give up the search for his/her passion.
- Without passion, all a person does in life is merely waiting for the Grim Reaper to appear.
- Passion cannot be found in material things, such as money, honors, rewards etc.
- If a person uses material things as a measure of living well, he/she will always find other people around who have more of those material things. This will lead to discontentment and unhappiness.
- Passion must come from things that fill a person from the inside.
- Passion must always be grounded in people.
- Passion is about the relationships a person has with other people, and how he/she is able to gain the trust, respect and love of those around him/her.
- Like passion, true love is worth searching and waiting for.
- A person should not settle for anyone, but rather, seek the person whose happiness is more important than one’s own.
- When the Grim Reaper shows up, it is already too late for a person to do all the things that he/she always wanted to do, but did not get around to doing.
- At a person’s death bed, he/she is likely to have regrets over what he/she did not do in life, rather than those that he/she did.
Do ponder over what Dr. Pausch had shared. Although some may sound like clichés, these are actually simple but important lessons to learn and apply in order for us to really live well.
Dr. Randy Pausch.
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