When college professor Randy Pausch found out he was dying of terminal cancer, he wrote his Last Lecture, about imparting wisdom in others before you die. As this year’s Lovejoy Legacy Readers community read, The Last Lecture has been incorporated into English classes. Each student wrote their own last lecture, with lessons they would want to share if they were dying.
“I thought writing the Last Lecture was really cool,” senior Holly Ostrander said. “It made me reflect on my past four years here, and realize what I have learned and what I could have done differently.”
Several students have been selected to read their personal lectures at the last lecture reading event in the LHS Lecture Hall on April 30 at 6:30 p.m.
“My English teacher asked me on Thursday,” senior Edie Hudson said. “It definitely makes me nervous. I’m not real comfortable talking in front of a lot of people.”
The event is open to the community and there will be readings from students, teachers, administration, and coaches.
“I guess the fact that it’s pre-prepared and that’s it’s about me makes it easier to talk about,” Hudson said.
As different as the students who wrote the essays are, their life lessons are just as individualized.
“I wrote about what I learned in my high school experience,” Ostrander said. “It didn’t make me rethink my life, but it made me reflect, not on what I could have done differently, but about what I’ve learned.”
Although students could have written an essay without really thinking through the lessons they have learned and reflecting on real life experiences, most students took the assignment seriously.
“There was a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt that I based my essay on,” Hudson said. “It talks about you gaining a lot from pulling yourself out of your comfort zone and looking fear in the face. You grow the most when you do something you’re afraid of.”
The theme of the lecture left many students considering their life and what they have done with it; a theme that lends itself to self- reflection and discovery.
“I think turning 18, you kind of stop for the first time ever,” Hudson said. “You stop and wonder what happened to the last 18 years of your life. If I do have the chance to know that I’m dying, I don’t want to look back and regret the way I lived my life.”
