The Last Lecture

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Caroline Matkom A.P. Psychology Hour 6 “If you live your life the right way, your dreams will come to you.” This quote comes from the energetic, fit, and lively Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University. From the cheerful and handsome man standing in front of the lecture hall, one would have never guessed he was admits his final months of a terminating battle with pancreatic cancer. The Last Lecture is indeed the last lecture Dr. Pausch ever performed, a retrospective, reflective testimony of his short yet passionate life. The lecture included varies aspects of Erik Erickson’s stages of psychosocial development, such as the elementary school stage, middle adulthood and late adulthood. In addition, Dr. Pausch’s talk discussed the cultural constructed idea of a “social clock.” The Last Lecture not only offers wonderful advice for all but highlights key aspects of the psychosocial developmental progression. The Elementary school phase (six years to puberty) forces children to internally battle between competences versus inferiority. Kids either “learn the pleasure of applying themselves to tasks”(Myers 170), or feel enabled to achieve as well as peers. Dr. Pausch reflects on his elementary school years and tells the audience that despite times of inferiority due to his size, Pausch felt quite competence in this time frame. Pausch formed a list of dreams and goals that he set for himself during this age. He lists and describes each dream, raging from collecting large stuffed animals at fairs to working with Disney Imaginers, and recounts the process to achieve these goals. Creating this clear path for his dream shows the comfortable sense of who Pausch was and what he desired in life. Dr. Pausch was well aware of his identity. Even though the speaker also played football, which may have created a jock versus brainiack clash in his
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