The Last Time I Cried Because Of Book Feels - The Last Lecture

It takes a lot for me to cry over books, mainly because I've read so many WWII / leukemia / angst novels that I thought I would be desensitized to tragedy.  Memoirs always get in me in the end. 

Randy Pausch, a tenured professor with a life full of successful endeavors, finds out that he has terminal cancer.  A few treatments later, he is gingerly told that he has "3 to 6 months of good health left".  Shortly after, he is approached by Carnegie Mellon to participate as a speaker in a series of "Last Lectures", with the irony that with only two months to live, this would very well be his Last Lecture.  

This book is divided up into parts.  The first part prefaces the beginning of the end, with him finding out about his diagnosis, being approached to deliver a last lecture, and debating on whether to give the lecture or spend that valuable time with his family instead.  While a difficult decision, he reasons that since his kids are too young at this age to truly understand his condition and remember their last moments together, this lecture (recorded and written) would give his children a better idea of what their father was like.  The second part is the upbeat and inspirational lecture itself, "The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams". The last part consists of farewell remarks to his faculty and family.

While the book was inspirational, I liked it more for the emotional value rather than the life advice he gave me.  I applaud his journey, but this guy was extraordinary, so much that it was difficult for me to meditate on his advice and apply it to my own 'ordinary' life.  This guy worked for Google, for Walt Disney Imagineering, for EA games, and achieved tenure at Carnegie Mellon at a young age.  He drove a convertible, married the girl of his dreams, and despite his tumors, was actually in better physical condition than most of the people in the lecture hall (he did push ups on the stage to prove it).  Basically, he would give advice like "brick walls are nothing, you just gotta prove that you want it super bad and basically you'll get through it and win in the end" (totally paraphrasing, but yeah, that's pretty much it).  It was hard to believe him because this guy is both an intellectual and creative genius and is incredibly charismatic and unfortunately not everyone has those gifts.  Other than that issue, I loved his bright outlook on life and the enthusiastic delivery of his lecture.  It's inspirational and emotionally contagious.  It makes you feel like a lazy bum and will inspire you to explore your interests more deeply, read more books, ask questions, try new things, and be a little more fearless.