The Last Lecture

Pausch outlines how he pursued his dreams. He exhorts the reader, “It’s important to have specific dreams” (31). Pausch had a childhood dream of “floating,” not necessarily of being an astronaut. When he was a faculty advisor, NASA organized a contest for college students to experience zero gravity. Pausch’s group applied and won, but as a faculty advisor he was unable to fly with them. So he researched loopholes and changed his status to journalist, so he could experience floating with them. The lesson here is that “if you can find an opening, you can probably find a way to float through it” (34).

In Chapter 7 Pausch reminisces about his “romance with football” (35). Though he never achieved his dream of making it to the NFL, he reflects, “I sometimes think I got more from pursuing that dream, and not accomplishing it, than I did from many of the ones I did accomplish” (35). He learned a lot from football—especially from his old school coach, Jim Graham—and applied those lessons to his teaching. Most people may not appreciate having an especially demanding coach, but Pausch learned to value Coach Graham’s toughness. The assistant coach put Graham’s