The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch

I let the slide liner, so the audience could follow the arrows and count my tumors. "All right," I said. "This is what it is. We can't change it. We just have to decide how we'll respond. We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.

I quote my father to people almost every day. Part of that is because if you dispense your own wisdom, others often dismiss it; if you offer wisdow from a third party, it seems less arrogant and more acceptable.

When I was studing for my PhD, I took something called "the theory qualifier," which I can now definitively say was the second worst thing in my life after chemotherapy. When I complained to my mother about how hard and awful the test was, she leaned over, patted me on the arm and said, "We know just how you feel, honey. And remember, when your father was your age, he was fighting the Germans."

My dad gave me the tongue-lashing of a lifetime. He believed manual labor was beneath no one. He said he'd prefer that I worked hard and became the best ditch-digger in the world rather than coasting along as a self-impressed elitist behind a desk.

Sometimes, all you have to do is ask... Ask those questions. Just ask them. More often than you'd suspect, the answer you'll get is, "sure."

I would just ask my kids to find their way with enthusiasm and passion. And I want them to feel as if I am there with them, whatever path they choose.