Matthew Wiedmayer Ms.Pagan Summer Reading Essay September 8, 2015 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 …show more content…
Randy Pausch talks about this in the last lecture. Cutting time wasted on television and using that time to set goals for yourself if a better way to live a happier life. Television is not helping you achieve the goal that you are pursuing. Randy is trying to teach everyone, specifically his kids, that if you procrastinate you will never get anywhere in life. “If you took one-tenth the energy you put into complaining and applied it to solving the problem, you'd be surprised by how well things can work out... Complaining does not work as a strategy. We all have finite time and energy. Any time we spend whining is unlikely to help us achieve our goals. And it won't make us happier (pg. 138).” To succeed in life you need to work hard and do everything to the best of your ability. By managing your time it shows you how to make more time in your life to do the things you want to do, unlike using your time and getting stumped on the little things that come in your path along the way. “Time is all we have. You may find one day that you have less than you think (pg.114).” This quote means do not waste your time on little things and find something that you will enjoy and that you can share with …show more content…
Randy Pausch, with the limited time he had left in the world, changed from a good person to a better person. People think back on their mistakes and how they messed up and they try to fix it. With time, anything can happen. After finding out about his cancer, Randy used the time he had left to teach life lessons to his kids in a way that will make them into better people.“Find the best in everybody. Wait long enough, and people will surprise and impress you. It might even take years, but people will show you their good side. Just keep waiting (pg.153).” Randy is teaching them that all people are good it just takes time for them to show it. Throughout the book, The Last Lecture, Randy teaches his kids lessons that he would not be able to teach them when they are older because Randy was going to die. So Randy tapes his last lecture and gives it to his to kids so they can look back when they do not know what to do. He was trying to teach them that people are more important than things and nothing can change that. As Randy displayed in chapter 15, no new Volkswagen Cabrio convertible is more important than a human being because things are just
As I read pages 134-135 I began to realize that Joe Rantz is particularly much different from me. First, at the start of page 134 Thula is shutting Joe out of her life again. I don’t have a step parent but even if I did I would never let anyone treat me this way for most of my life. I believe that makes this passage a window so I may observe a different way to handle things. Even Joyce, Joe’s fiancé does not understand why Joe would allow himself to be looked upon in this manner. Joe is very impassive and relenting once Thula tells him to leave. This is a noticeably different personality from people I have encountered. It gives me a window to see a different mindset and way of thinking. Of which is wonderful for a reader because often we assume
Steven Alper’s life started out completely normal. Steven starts out as your average teenage middle school boy; skinny, wears glasses, has braces, and last but not least, invisible to the hottest girl in 8th grade, Renee Albert. Besides being a complete geek, Steven excels at playing the drums; even making into the All-City Jazz Band. But after troubling times come after attempting to make “moatmeal” for his younger brother Jeffery, Steven’s world gets turned completely upside down; changing and challenging the rest of his 8th grade year.
In the dystopian novel of The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil, the theme is Loss of love. Loss of love is both demonstrated inside the novel and as well it is presented in the real world life where real humans live in. Who knew that in a fiction novel it can seem so real as these situations that are happening in the novel were not made up and were real things happening to the Characters. Just like these situations happening in the novel they are actually happening in the real world today. Loss of love occurs in the novel of The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil through three influential characters; Inner Horinters, Phil, and Carol. The fictional representation of loss is similar to real life situations such as Undocumented Immigrants
“…seeing the creature [Leopard Man] there in a perfectly animal attitude, with the light gleaming in its eyes, and its imperfectly human dace distorted with terror, I realized again the fact of its humanity. In another moment other of its pursuers would see it, and it would be overpowered and captured, to experience once more the horrible tortures of the enclosure. Abruptly I slipped out my revolver, aimed between his terror-struck eyes and fired” (Wells 72-73).
The “Joe Ryker” series by Nelson DeMille are from thriller genre. They focus on a man named Joe Ryker who is a Detective Seargent with the New York Police Department. Ryker is a regular guy who knows his surroundings very well, something that gives him the edge when it comes to tracking down the criminals. He works by himself, unless you count the snub nose .38 police special that he keeps on his ankle, and the .357 Magnum that is on his shoulder.
From Hitler throughout the Holocaust, Maus the graphic novel has brought a story of a survivor, Vladek Spiegelman, a Polish Jew. Vladek has been there when the Swastika was a symbol of well-being and the goods. From the start of World War II and sustained until the war ended. Vladek survived the war because of luckiness, after that, being resourceful was the reason he lived. Lost his first born son in the process, moved to the United States. Lost his wife and lived with a fear it might happen all over again, he is a survivor of the Holocaust.
The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, and the novel Wonder by RJ Palacio both feature strong main characters who fight in wars, both literal, and metaphorical, these wars cause the characters to deal with hardship and grief at a young age. Many of the characters in The Things They Carry are related to the main character in Wonder, because of the way they try to hide their feelings from others. In both novels, there is a main character versus self conflict occurring. Although the novels share some similarities, they are actually quite different. The main character in The Things They Carried is a twenty-one year old man, Tim, who is drafted into the Vietnam War. The novel switches between present day Tim, and Tim’s time during
Everyone is born innocent. As people grow they slowly lose their innocence. They are exposed to evils, pain, and suffering that rids them of their innocence. Throughout the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, readers watch as the characters lose their innocence throughout the war. Tim O'brien constantly conveys a loss of innocence through his characters.
The play “A Raisin in the Sun” was written by Lorraine Hansberry marking her first ever written play. Lorraine Hansberry was the first African American woman to write a play that was to be produced on Broadway. Although a brilliant writer, Hansberry’s opportunities of writing were cut short when she died at the age of thirty-five from cancer. Lorraine lived from 1930 to 1965, dying on the day that Broadway closed her second play, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window”. “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” was written in 1964, only 5 years later than “A Raisin in the Sun” which was written in 1959. Later in 1959, “A Raisin in the Sun” won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, becoming the first
As many people know modern television produces many good and bad consequences to the viewer. However, as a whole, the positive effects of TV clearly out weight the negative ones. In Barbara Ehrenreich’s passage, The Worst Years of Our Lives, she asserts that what’s being televised, immobilizes the viewer from actually doing the activities portrayed on TV. Yet, all the events on television have been imitated from what is going on in real life. Television is not something that drains a person from everyday activities, but something that encourages them to try new ones and escape the crazy, stressful moments of life. Not only is TV something that exemplifies new hobbies that can be taken on, but it is also a moment where a family can come together and laugh at all those funny moments in Full House and The Simpsons. Lastly, and possibly most importantly it informs people on what’s going on around
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.
Tragedy struck Holcomb, Kansas on November 15th, 1959, with the lost of four members of the Clutter family, who were well known in their town. “Of all the people in the world, the Clutters were the least likely to be murdered,” (Capote 85) was what one townsperson said about the widely known family. Their lives were taken by two men named, Richard (Dick) Hickock and Perry Smith. After months of fleeing, Dick and Perry were captured. Over the next couple of years they were through numerous hearings and questioning over the murder they committed. Then the day came where some believed that vengeance was served. Hickock and Smith were both executed by hanging just after midnight on April 14, 1965. Dick and Perry 's mental health was widely discussed
Well, there were no instructions on the professionality of this paper so I’m going to pour my little heart out. As someone who watches lectures and TED talks out of pure interest and introspection I have never encountered something so inspirational, light hearted, and beautiful from a man on his deathbed. Even my time volunteering at Suncoast Hospice and the beautiful stories of fulfilled dreams and success haven’t been so eloquently constructed, or spoken with such vigor as Randy Pausch had put them in just over an hour.
In the argumentative essay “T.V. Addiction” by Marie Winn, Winn relates watching television to having an addiction with drugs and alcohol. The television experience allows us to escape from the real world and enter into a pleasurable and peaceful mental state. When it comes to television, Marie asks the following question: Is there a kind of television viewing that falls into the more serious category of destruction addiction? I believe there is. Why do so many people, instead of doing what they’re supposed to be doing, put everything on hold and just focus on television? I think this is because they want an escape from their problems.
...arents tend to produce softly-addicted kids. It?s very difficult for parents to tell kids to stop watching so much television when they?re guilty of the same type of mindless behaviors. Parents will find, however, that if they learn to spend their time more meaningfully, not only will their lives be more satisfying but they?ll help create more satisfying lives for their children.There are many ways to raising a happy, health child. Parenting is a special gift to most men and women. The best thing you can give to parenting is to be consistent with whatever you tell your child to do and their punishment.