Professor Randy Pausch made a surprise return to Carnegie Mellon University to deliver an inspirational speech to the Class of 2008 at the Commencement Ceremony on May 18, 2008.
Here's the full transcript
Last August I was told there are likely I have three to six months left to live, I'm on month 9 now.
Somebody said to me in light of those numbers,"Wow so you're really beating the Grim Reaper",
And what I said without even thinking about is, we don't beat the Reaper by living longer, we beat the Reaper by living well, and living fully for the Reaper will come for all of us, the question is what do we do between the time were born and the time he shows up? cause when he shows up, it's too late to do all the things, but you always gonna kinda get around to it.
So, I think the only advice I can give you on how to live your life well, is first off remember, it's a cliche, but by love cliches, it is not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed, it is the things we do not. Because I assure you I've done a lot a really stupid things, and none of them bother me, all the mistakes, and all the dopey thing won't and all times I was embarrassed they don't matter, what matters is that I can kinda look back and say pretty much anytime I got a chance to do something cool I tried to grab for and that's where my solace comes from.
The second thing that I would add to that, and I didn't coordinate on the subject of this work, but I think it's the right word that comes up is passion, and you will need to find your passion. Many of you have already done it, many of you will later, many of you may take thirties or forties, but don't give up on finding it, oh right because that all you're doing is waiting for the reaper, find your passion and follow it, and if there is anything I have learned in my life you will not find that passion in things, and you will not find that passion in money, because the more things on the more money you have the more you would just look around and use that as the metric and there'll always be someone with more.
So your passion must come from the things that fuel you from the inside, and in my experience, no matter what you do at work, what you do in official settings, that passion will be grounded in people and it would be pack grounded in the relationship I have with people and what they think of you when your time comes, and if nothing else I hope that all of you can find that kind of passion and that kind of love in your life.
Thank you.
Nearly two months after the commencement ceremony, Professor Pausch died from pancreatic cancer at his family's home in Chesapeake, Virginia on July 25, 2008, at the age of 47.
Professor Pausch was included in TIME Magazine's 2008 list of the world's 100 most influential people. His book, "The Last Lecture", co-written by Jeff Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal and based on Pausch's now-famous talk "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams", is a New York Times #1 bestseller.
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