Remembering Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch, 1960-2008

For those of you who don't know, this man wrote a book called "The Last Lecture" (which I haven't read yet but plan to once I have time to read for fun) and also gave a really inspirational speech (available on YouTube) on how to live life to the fullest. At the time he gave his last lecture, he'd been diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer and was given 3-6 months to live, and he ended up living for almost a year after his initial diagnosis. He kept a blog on his health and progress, which I'd been following faithfully for about six months. In his entries, he always posted his blood pressure, his creatinine levels (to show how his kidneys were doing), and more importantly, his CA 19-9 count. As the months passed by, his CA 19-9 ranged from about less than 100 to over 1000, but ever the optimist, he said that by the time it was over, his CA 19-9 would probably be close to 4000. I always looked forward to reading his blog, just to know if he was doing all right, but when a month passed without an entry (the last one I read was in June, when he said chemo wasn't working and he was considering other options) I had a nagging fear that his health had taken a downhill turn. =/ His blog has been taken off the internet, but I know I will never forget the things he shared with the rest of the world in the last year of his life. This man really did live life to the fullest, and I hope I can do the same.