Blog for The Last Lecture

Once I started reading The Last Lecture, I knew I’m never going to put this book down and I didn’t put the book down ever. I kept reading the book, even after I finished it. I read the book over twice. There were some parts of the book that made me laugh. There were some parts of the book that made me cry. The book over all inspired me to live everyday as if it were my last whether or not I had a terminal disease or not. The book made me think “I need to live my life like its going to be my last.” There were a few quotes from the book that stood out to me.

The quotes are as follows:“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”; “The key question to keep asking is, Are you spending your time on the right things? Because time is all you have.” ; “It’s not how hard you hit. It’s how hard you get hit…and keep moving forward.”  

I could go on with these quotes because all the quotes I have seen have a meaning behind them. If I had to rate the book overall, I’d give it 5 out of 5 stars, because this book gives so much advice and teaches us life lessons that we should learn, and keep all the advice in mind. Just remember to cherish life as if it were last and you were dying of something really rare. That is all that I learned from that book. I am willing to buy The Last Lecture, keep it in my library, and read it over and over again, because this book goes to show everything that is important in life, you should spend your time on all the right things in life, not the wrong things. “…Because time is all you have.”

Randy’s Star Trek Story

The chapter about Captain Kirk was by far my favorite. My dad grew up watching the original Star Trek, and it has since become a family activity to watch the show. Recently, my dad and I even traveled to the Air and Space Museum in D.C. to see the studio model of the Starship Enterprise. I have grown to love it and the unique stories it tells. Randy’s admiration for Kirk is shared by me and my dad. Kirk’s courage, leadership, and determination has helped me in my life and will continue to inspire me. I smiled through reading the entire chapter, and had a feeling of fulfillment, as I’m sure he felt, when Randy received the signed portrait from William Shatner.

First Impression of Last Lecture

When I started reading The Last Lecture, I was skeptical of how I would feel reading this memoir of a dying man. After getting into it, I realized that, rather than feeling melancholy, I feel inspired by Randy’s drive and determination. His motivation to live his life to the fullest really allowed me to gain a more positive outlook on life. The pursuit of summing up his entire life into one lecture drives readers to reflect on their own lives and what makes them unique. It drove me to contemplate what stories I would tell about my life, and I’m not sure if I could find what makes me unique in the amount of time that Randy had.