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Reflection in human development and personal development
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Diagnosed with cancer and given just months to live, Randy Pausch decided to give a last lecture. Randy felt this was important so that he may give a sort of goodbye to those who he cared about, share advice and life-experiences that he felt were important, and most importantly for his kids, whom would never really get to know him because of their age. This book is a collection of stories and general life advice that Randy felt was important to share before moving on.
This was a very touching book. If one word had to be chosen to describe it, this word would be “real.” It was an extremely easy read, but was still able to hold value in its teaching and depth as Randy shared to the best of his ability what knowledge he thought to pass on. One
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Randy regularly empowered the dreams of others through offering help to individuals. In The Last Lecture, Randy makes a "Startrek" reference. He brings up how the greater part of the individuals in the show have awesome gifts, however everybody loved Captain Kirk in spite of his clear absence of aptitudes. Randy then goes ahead to clarify that the thing Captain Kirk has that makes him so key to the show is leadership. Kirk knew how to lead and had what it takes to move and motivate others. He expresses how key it was that Captain Kirk sets the tone for the ship and empowers moral. The crew of the ship is better equipped to do their duty with a leader such as Kirk motivating them. This also applies to real life. An example of Randy’s leadership was when he had a virtual reality course as a teacher. In this course he had students work in groups and make a virtual world without utilizing sex or brutality. This stipulation of no sex or brutality made the task difficult, yet Randy let them know he trusted they could do it and enlivened them to buckle down. When his students had their finished projects, it was superior to anything Randy had envisioned. Through his key leadership ability, Randy led his class to be more successful in this task than they
This book was brilliant. There were moments that made me laugh, moments that made me tremble in my chair, moments that made me cry, moments that melted my heart, and moments that made me want to rip my hair out at the roots. This book has it all, and it delivers it through a cold but much needed message.
I always looked at death as such a sad thing that is eventually going to occur to everyone. However, after reading this book, it made me realize death can actually be a beautiful thing. Death allows a person to go to a next life, one where they will be loved and others will be there for them. It was interesting to be able to read about stories that these hospice care workers witnessed themselves. I have experienced a few deaths within my life and I never coped with them very well. After reading this book, I honestly believe I will be able to look at the positive side of death and be able to deal with my emotions better. I can also help others surrounding me deal with a death that they are experiencing. This book was filled with information that I loved learning. For example, I never knew that a dying person can choose a time to die. The thought of this never occurred to me before. I always thought that when it was someone’s time to go, they had no choice. But, a dying person can “put off” passing on until they see a certain person or event that has great significance in their life. Nevertheless, there are still people who will wait to die until they’re all alone in the room. This book makes you think of real life situations and think what you would do in them. Taken as a whole, it was a very in depth book that changes the way you would naturally perceive
I found the book to be a thought provoking and fascinating narrative, that was easy to get into. Author Beck's story of his spiritual journey made for worthy reading, especially, with his grounded, detailed recollections and comfortable writing style that flows fluently in an easy going conversational tone that invites you to read on. At times gritty, sometimes impassioned, and tangibly emotional this memoir of a young man looking to find his place in the world and finding it through the awakening of his faith and love for Jesus Christ was a worthwhile
Cancer is a deadly disease that millions of people die from a year. Many loved ones are killed with little to no warning affecting families across our world. My family happened to be one that was affected by this atrocious disease. This event changed the way my family members and I viewed cancer.
My Final Banquet: It was my final moments as a Chelsea High School cheerleader. My final banquet was quickly approaching. It was then that I realized I was not ready for the season to be over. I stood in front of my friends, fellow cheerleaders, and their families as they watched and waited for me to recite my last words as the season came to an end. It took hours for me to write about what my teammates and coaches meant to me.
The Colonial Period (1607-1775) was essentially the first literary movement in America. The ideas portrayed within the period were expressed with two main styles of writing; Puritan and Classical. The puritan style was heavily influenced by God and the puritan's way of life. It was often short and too the point, and referred to ordinary things. The Classical Style was usually used to express analysis, theory, and practice. This style was delivered in a way that it would influence the audience. "Huswifery", by Edward Taylor offers a great example of the use of the Puritan style. He used a spinning wheel, and ordinary object, to compare his relationship to God. He tried to compare his feelings in an ordinary way that followed the puritan style, just like Anne Bradstreet in "To My Dear and Loving Husband". She used multiple metaphors to help explain how great her love was for her husband. Although emotion is not favored in the Puritan style, she vented them through her poetry. In the Classical style of writing, giving sermons was a common way of presenting information to people; and Jonathan Edwards is a great example. His sermons were direct and persuasive because he used literary devices that created images in the audience's heads. All of these stories helped to get people to start worshipping God again, thus giving the creation of the Colonial Period in America.
Throughout my Fall 2013 semester I have experienced and learned numerous ideas and information. All of my classes each taught me vital information to succeed and pursue my careers and goals in life. One of those classes was English 314 Honors. This class has truly broadened my horizon towards the numerous collections of literature in our world. I have learned the literary works of Egyptian’s, Mesopotamian’s, Indian’s (South India), Chinese’s, and African’s and how they each impacted their culture. In addition, I learned many philosophical beliefs from wisdom literature and the genre, geographic background, and time period of which each works were made (some dates were roughly estimated). However, the main takeaway from English 314 Honors is the style of how all the different literary works incorporate nature and its meaning it gives to each society. Throughout all the literary works I have learned nature is portrayed as a primitive, creative, beautiful, and tragic conception, which has a major influence on each culture.
One fateful day at the end of June in 1998 when I was spending some time at home; my mother came to me with the bad news: my parent's best friend, Tommy, had been diagnosed with brain cancer. He had been sick for some time and we all had anxiously been awaiting a prognosis. But none of us were ready for the bumpy roads that lay ahead: testing, surgery, chemotherapy, nausea, headaches, and fatigue. Even loud music would induce vomiting. He just felt all around lousy.
Time is all you have and you have to make the most of it. Randy Pausch had pancreatic cancer and according to his doctors he had only three to six months left to live, but that did not matter to Randy. Randy made the most of his time to spend with his family and preparing his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon to leave something to his kids to look back on. Randy shows us that time is not to be wasted sitting around and doing nothing. Randy also shows us to manage our time to do everything that is needed to be done. Finally, Randy shows us that time can change people for good or for worse. From this book, I learned that you have to spend all of your
The 1960s was a period well remembered for all the civil rights movements that occurred during that time frame and the impact these movements had on the social and political dynamics of the United States. The three largest movements that were striving in the 1960s were the African American civil rights movement, the New Left movement and the feminist movement. These three movements were in a lot of ways influenced by each other and were very similar in terms of their goals and strategies. However, within each of these movements there were divisions in the way they tried to approach the issues they were fighting against. Looking at each of these movements individually will reveal the relationship they all share as well as the changes that were brought forth as a result of each groups actions.
Over the course of Intro to College Writing I have written a total of three essays and turned in. These three essays consist of: Narrative, Profile, and Argumentative. My first essay was the Narrative in which I wrote about the night of my mothers arrest. With this essay. I as a writer was trying to convey the emotions I felt during the experience and describe the many atmospheres that occurred throughout the incident. The only memorable thing from this essay was figuring out how to end the essay in a way that wrapped the entire essay back up in a short meaningful, stylistic way. That I felt I did well with my last line being “That was the first time I had said “I love you” in well, I couldn't tell you.” Through writing that last statement I felt I summed up a struggling relationship I held with my mother sparring details that spanned over years into a simple sentence that echoed around the core concept. This was the only breakthrough I met as I wrote this essay recalling the night and describing my feelings flowed easily and I found myself done quickly. I only stopped to find a fancier word or write a sentence in a different way. Either making it longer, shorter or include more details. I had strong feelings that I communicated the entire situation in a comprehensible and touching way. Looking back on the essay there was much too be corrected as I did in my re-write such as: Organization, fragments, Contractions, comma splices.
Randy Pausch was a man who found much success in his life. He received his bachelors degree from Brown University, and went on to earn his Ph.D in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University, later becoming a professor there. He had been employed with major companies, such as Adobe Systems and Walt Disney Imagineering. In September 2006, Randy Pausch discovered that he had terminal pancreatic cancer, and was given 3-6 months to live. He underwent a pancreaticoduodenectomy to remove the tumor from his pancreas, but by August 2007 the cancer had returned. After giving a lecture at Carnegie Mellon University in September 2007, called “Really Achieving your Childhood Dreams” (also referred to as “The Last Lecture”), it went viral, and led
Throughout the experiences obtained by inmates, correctional officers, and the prions administration as result of the prison itself, is overall negative. This due to the stressful, unpredictable, and volatile nature of the inmates incarcerated. Despite all of the negatives associated with prison, this miniature society does also benefit the parties involved. The system helps reform inmates, keeps the officers occupied with duties, and ensures that the administration stay modern on their policies and procedures.
It was June 6, 2011. I remember taking my mother to the County Hospital’s emergency room. She seemed extremely exhausted; her eyes were half-closed and yellow, and she placed her elbow on the armchair, resting her head on her palm. I remember it was crowded and the wait was long, so she wanted to leave. I was the only one there with her, but I did not allow her to convince me to take her home. I told her in Spanish, “Mom, let’s wait so that we can get this over with and know what’s going on with you. You’ll see everything is okay, and we’ll go home later on.” I wish then and now that would have been the case. Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with colon cancer that had spread to many parts of her body including her lungs and kidneys. The doctor said to me not considering that I was a minor and my mother’s daughter, “Her disease is very advanced and we don’t think she will live longer than a year.” With this devastating news, I did not know what to do. I thought to myself that perhaps I should cry, or try to forget and take care of her as best I could and make her laugh to ease her pain.
When he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he was given six months to live. If you had only six months to live, what would you do? How would you live your life? Instead of being depressed, Pausch left people an inspiring message to live each day to its fullest with the widely known speech – “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”. In his “Last Lecture”, he talked about how he achieved his childhood dreams. His childhood dreams were being in zero gravity, playing in the National Football League, authoring an article in the World Book Encyclopedia, being Captain Kirk from the movie, Star Wars, and being an imagineer in Disney… He went on to attain most of his dreams, although he overcame the obstacles that may seem insurmountable, they didn’t all come easy. Even though sometimes he met a wall and took the roundabout ways, the experiences he gained can’t be compared with anything