Randy Pausch, a 46-year-old computer-science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, has terminal cancer and expects to live for just a few more months.
This week, he said goodbye to his students and the Pittsburgh college with one last lecture called "How to Live Your Childhood Dreams," on his life's journey and the lessons he's learned
A beloved professor at Carnegie Mellon, Pausch got a standing ovation from the 400-member audience before he even opened his mouth.
"Make me earn it," he told them.
No Self-Pity
Pausch, a father of three, talked about his battle with pancreatic cancer. "So in case there is anyone in the room who wandered in and didn't know my back story, my dad always said, 'If there is an elephant in the room, introduce him,'" Pausch said in the lecture.
"If you look at my [CT] scan, there are approximately 10 tumors in my liver. The doctors told me I had three to six months of good health left. That was a month ago so you can do the math."
The diagnosis was a grim reality, but Pausch doesn't do grim and he doesn't do self-pity.
"I've never understood pity and self-pity as an emotion," Pausch told Diane Sawyer on "Good Morning America" today. "We have a finite amount of time. Whether short or long, it doesn't matter. Life is to be lived."
The lecture is filled with jokes.
"We're not going to talk about spirituality and religion. Although I will tell you that I have experienced a deathbed conversion. I just bought a Macintosh. … Now I know I'd get 9 percent of the audience with that," Pausch said.
He also told the audience he was in "phenomenally good health" at the moment and even did a round of one-handed push-ups to prove it.
Patience Rewarded
Pausch said he looked back at family photos and saw that when he was a kid, he was smiling in every picture.
"So what were my childhood dreams? You may not agree with this list, but I was there. Being in zero gravity, playing in the National Football League, authoring an article in the World Book Encyclopedia. I guess you can tell the nerds early," he said in the lecture.
**** I think this is a video that everyone needs to watch....What a love this man has for his children and how sad that his 3 children will only have pictures and videos to remember their dad with******
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