Inspirational

While it may not show in this here web log, I love to read. Like hardcore. The best gift I could possibly get from anyone is a gift certificate to book store. When I was in the Motherland this year, I read seven books. SEVEN. That's a book a week. I thought I was only staying for two and still brought four with me. The other three... well those I had already read in years past and decided to read them again. Yup, I'm a nerd.

So one of my favorite gifts this year was a $50 gift card to B&N and a copy of The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

Randy Pausch is truly the definition of an amazing human being. He was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon before being diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. When he found out he was definitely going to die, instead of laying down and feeling sorry for himself, he made the conscious decision to keep living. He decided to make the most of the time he had left with his wife and kids. In September 2007, he gave his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon. He talked about his life, about acheiving his childhood dreams, and how he has helped others acheive their dreams. His attitude is awe inspiring. If everyone lived their lives with that kind of hope, with that kind of gratitude, with that much enthusiam and persistance, this world would be....I honestly can't quantify how much better it would be. He's that good, people!

Randy sadly lost his battle to cancer on July 25th, 2008. I had never met the man, but I cried like he was my uncle. People like Randy deserve to live to 108, not 48.

If you'd like to be inspired, if you'd like to see the true definition of awesome, I encourage you visit his website and watch his Last Lecture. If you have more than 70 minutes to spare, read his book. I read it in a few hours and it was the most well-spent few hours of the holidays.

I hope I can give to this world one tenth of what Randy Pausch gave. Rest in peace.