Fourth Post

The movie The Last Lecture was really interesting. I enjoyed seeing it in class and I found it inspirational. It is so easy, especially in college to get worried about the little things. Things that, at the time, seems huge in our lives, aren't actually as detrimental as we perceive them to be. Some of the greatest problems I've had in college, have led to changes that have ended up making me happier. I think we get into a mindset at a young age, that anything that changes our routine is bad. Until we lose someone close, or experience a similar large tragedy, we have a hard time putting our lives, and the problems that are in them, into perspective.

I liked the lecture because he was very upbeat and positive. It would have been hard to listen to someone talk about cancer and the negativity that goes with it for an hour and fifteen minutes. Instead, he chose to take a positive stance that, in the long run, probably exposed the lecture to a larger audience.

I think the line from the movie that stuck with me the most was the part about brick walls. He said that brick walls are just a way of weeding out the people who aren't passionate about the experience. I had an experience with a brick wall recently, and I dealt with it as a passionate person, but I still wasn't able to get around it. I still like the idea of the brick wall only being a short-term obstacle. I foresee myself applying that concept in the future.

I also liked the part of his lecture about childhood dreams. I don't recall having any specific childhood dreams. After viewing this lecture, I wish that I had given thought to future dreams when I was a child. One dream I can think of is teaching. I've always wanted to be a teacher. When I was in first grade, I got put in time out and I told the teacher, "When I grow up, I'm going to be a teacher so I can put kids in time out for no reason, too!" Though my goals in teaching have changed, I am still pursuing a job as a teacher. Still, throughout my education, I had a hard time deciding what kind of teacher I wanted to be. For a long time I wanted to be an English teacher - until I found out I had to learn about the parts of a sentence. I also wanted to be a massage therapist or a vet, but I stayed with the teaching aspect in the long run. I recall having a dream that I would have a lot of cats when I "grew up," because I wasn't allowed to have them as a kid. I have two cats right now and I think it would be fun to have a third. We even have a name picked out: Dorothy.

So perhaps I have realized two of my dreams. I can't really think of any other dreams I had. I never got into the little girl dream of fantasizing about my wedding day. My wedding day ended up being really casual and low-stress, much to the surprise of my parents and my mother-in-law. I had the feeling they wanted it to be a lot more formal than it was. Perhaps that was their dream?