My First Lecture

I recently finished reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, Professor of Computer Science, for my Expository and Critical Writing class. Pausch was asked by Carnegie Mellon to present for a lecture series in which the idea is "if you only have time to give one last lecture, what would it be about?" Shortly after being asked to present, Pausch discovered he had pancreatic cancer and was given a diagnosis of 4 months of good health left, meaning this would likely be his actual last lecture. 

After reading and listening to Pausch's lecture, we were given the assignment of writing our own First Lecture. I can't described to you how much I struggled with this assignment. I honestly felt and still feel that I am too young to try and give any advice to my classmates, who I had to present my lecture to. After struggling for about 3 weeks with a topic, I finally decided to give my lecture on responsibility. I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out.

My professor told me that reading Pausch's book would give us inspiration for writing our own lecture, but it took me long time to find mine. It was when I remembered the moment in The Last Lecture when Pausch gives a small piece of advice: “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand,” that I found my inspiration.

I realized that by saying we can only change how we play the hand, we really mean we must take responsibility for our decisions. For me, responsibility can be owning up to mistakes and finding solutions for them, making difficult decisions when no one else will, or making the best of every opportunity that comes your way. 

Well, I made the best of my small spark of inspiration and wrote my lecture. It turned out pretty well, though it was only about 3 minutes long. I think it's actually better at the length I left it at. After all, I don't have much more to say about responsibility because I'm only 21 years old. I still have a lot to learn about the topic myself.