If you enjoy novels like Tuesdays with Morrie or The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom then you will absolutely adore The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

Randy Pausch was a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University and the co-founder of CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center for Virtual Reality Research. A month before Pausch gave his “Last Lecture” at Mellon, he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. The Last Lecture is based on that talk.

Written as a type of autobiography left to his children, the novel is broken into various sections including, “The Last Lecture,” “Really Achieving your Childhood Dreams,” “Adventures and Lessons Learned,” “Enabling The Dreams of Others,” and “It’s About How to Live Your Life.”

“The Last Lecture” begins exceptionally slowly. To be honest, it took me to about the “Really Achieving your Childhood Dreams” section of the book to really get into the rhythm of the author’s writing. Don’t let that deter you, though, because the book is filled with some fantastic life lessons and stories.

“The Last Lecture” section works as a kind of introduction. Pausch explains his experience as a professor and his road to essentially his diagnosis and now this lecture.

“Really Achieving your Childhood Dreams” really starts to get into the juicy part of the book. Pausch reflects on his time with his father and growing up during an era where self-confidence was built, not “given.” To expand further, Pausch retells his experience with his football coach, Coach Graham, who had a “no-coddling zone.” To Coach Graham self-esteem was built by giving children “something they can’t do, they work hard until they find they can do it, and you just keep repeating the process.“

When reading other reviews of this book I noticed a lot of folks noting how this book speaks from a place of privilege. While I don’t disagree with those statements, I think all autobiographies have the potential to speak from a place of privilege because everyone holds a level of privilege in some way, shape, or form. I will say, Pausch’s advice is grown from a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality that might not consider all the social, economic, and cultural factors that go into the average person making a decision.

One of the lessons from this section that particularly resonated with me was Pausch’s father’s advice:

“Never make a decision until you have to.”

As a chronic overthinker and recovering people pleaser, I’ve been teaching myself to delay answers and responses. Previously if someone asked me a question that required a decision, I would default to the first answer that came to mind so that I didn’t have to think about it anymore. Now, I say to myself, “I don’t need to make a decision right now,” and I tell the person, “let me get back to you on that.” It made me anxious when I first started doing it, but the feeling of relief when I stopped overextending myself and honestly stopped doing things I didn’t want to do is beyond worth it.

“Adventures and Lessons Learned” was my favorite section of the book. Specifically, the chapter “Romancing the Brick Wall,” in which Pausch describes his early relationship with his wife, Jai, who he calls “the most formidable brick wall … [at] just five feet, six inches tall, and absolutely beautiful.” Early into their relationship Pausch lived in Pittsburgh, and Jai resided in North Carolina, where the two had previously met. Pausch was head over heels for Jai from the start, but she was more reluctant. After Pausch asked Jai to move to Pittsburgh, Jai freaking out and said, “this is never going to work.”

Pausch spoke to his parents about the situation, stating that he was “horrified and heartbroken.” However, his dad said to him, “If she doesn’t really love you, then it’s over. And if she does love you, then love will win out.”

A few days after Pausch popped the “move across country with me” question, Jai called and told him she was in love with him. By the end of that same week, Jai moved to Pittsburgh.

In Pausch’s words, “Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something.”

I think about this when I “have” to compromise on something for the sake of something I want more.

The section “Enabling The Dreams of Others” was interesting. It was filled with advice on managing others, productivity and efficiency, and being a leader in the workplace.

Since Pausch was in the world of academia, a lot of what he talks about resonates with me and my experiences in graduate school and navigating the world of academia. For example, in the chapter, “They Just Blew Me Away,” Pausch ponders the question, “If I could help individual students, one on one, as they work toward achieving their childhood dreams, was there a way to do it on a larger scale?” This was one of the questions I pondered as a graduate student.

My questioning, “there has to be a better way to do this,” has always landed me in a better place at the absolute best time, so I appreciated Pausch making that connection, especially for those in academia.

Finally, “It’s About How to Live Your Life” was fantastic! This was also one of my favorite sections because of all the mini pieces of advice that he offers. One of my favorites:

“Time must be explicitly managed, like money.”

I would recommend this book to quite literally everyone, including teens and young adult readers. This book is filled with amazing advice that applies to the workplace, self-confidence, and general life experiences. Not to mention the book is very appropriate for a broad audience.

Thank you for reading,