If Chewie Were Giving a Last Lecture

I recently finished reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch – I won’t go into it here but if you haven’t read I’d urge you to do so.  For those of you that don’t know Randy Pausch was a professor at Carnegie Melon who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and ended up giving what’s become known as “the last lecture”.  In it he talks about how he’s achieved many of his life’s goals and how he hopes his wife and children understand how much he loves them.  The amazing thing about Randy is that he’s SO positive.  You’d never know he was dying.  His outlook was infectious… we should all be so lucky.  Get it here… you’ll be glad you did.

So I started thinking… what would I say in my last lecture?  What would I tell my kids?  What would I tell my wife?  The short answer is I don’t know.  I won’t bore you with a lot of sentimental stuff.  Here’s the bottom line… I’ve done what I can do to live as long as I can.  I’ve quit.  I’m done.  I live in constant fear of cancer but I’m no longer actively engaging in an activity that will bring it to me any quicker.

So I guess I’d boil it down to this: Quit while you’re ahead… I did.