Write an essay in which you tell us about someone who has made an impact on your life and explain how and why this person is important to you.
I've never met him, he doesn't know that I exist, and even the most reckless junk-bond investors would hesitate to bet on any ties between us. Perhaps, the six degrees of separation provides the only link between us. But nevertheless, he challenged me.
A couple summers ago, to pass time, I was browsing Youtube and came upon a clip titled "time management," that is if a seventy five-minute long segment can really be considered a clip. And sure, I had three months to myself and was rather bored at the moment. But did i seriously want to embark upon an hour-long commitment to hear some professor advise me on how to better utilize my time? Considering that my aim was to find a quick laugh, it wasn't the most appealing choice. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a chance; it had near a million views, and the ratings were far superior than what I had expected, so why not?
While waiting for the video to load, I convinced myself to keep an open mind. Truthfully though, I probably wished for the video to become so overwhelmingly unbearable that I could justify closing it without feeling I had prematurely aborted something of value. However, as he began his lecture, I couldn't help but laugh. And no, it wasn't the type of nervous laughter evoked out of pity for the poor guy, but rather it was spontaneous and spurred me to think. I admit that I'm guilty of stereotyping, but normally you don't expect a Carnegie Mellon production or a computer science professor to be quite so witty. But then, like the sudden road block that appears before you, requiring you to swerve and apply emergency brakes, he revealed that he had pancreatic cancer, an impeding death sentence to be executed in less than a year.
As he continued his presentation, I admit that I had somehow forgot about his terminal illness. Besides the immediate shock that occupied my mind when he first revealed this, his composure and passion stripped us of any opportunity to pity or commiserate him. Although he is a far more eligible candidate than most for throwing a pity fest, he simply refused.
Even though there are probably even more inspirational speakers in this world than aspiring celebrities, he had an unique effect on me. It was as if he placed me on a mechanical bull, jolted me around until i became completely disoriented, led me to suffer a painfully humiliating fall, but in the midst of this, sparked an epiphany in me. I realized that whenever we encounter an obstacle, it seems as if all we are capable of doing is magnifying the problem until everyone we know dwells in our misery as well. As the saying goes, misery loves company, but fortunately Randy Pausch negated this philosophy for me.
I've never met him, he doesn't know that I exist, and even the most reckless junk-bond investors would hesitate to bet on any ties between us. Perhaps, the six degrees of separation provides the only link between us. But nevertheless, he challenged me.
A couple summers ago, to pass time, I was browsing Youtube and came upon a clip titled "time management," that is if a seventy five-minute long segment can really be considered a clip. And sure, I had three months to myself and was rather bored at the moment. But did i seriously want to embark upon an hour-long commitment to hear some professor advise me on how to better utilize my time? Considering that my aim was to find a quick laugh, it wasn't the most appealing choice. Nevertheless, I decided to give it a chance; it had near a million views, and the ratings were far superior than what I had expected, so why not?
While waiting for the video to load, I convinced myself to keep an open mind. Truthfully though, I probably wished for the video to become so overwhelmingly unbearable that I could justify closing it without feeling I had prematurely aborted something of value. However, as he began his lecture, I couldn't help but laugh. And no, it wasn't the type of nervous laughter evoked out of pity for the poor guy, but rather it was spontaneous and spurred me to think. I admit that I'm guilty of stereotyping, but normally you don't expect a Carnegie Mellon production or a computer science professor to be quite so witty. But then, like the sudden road block that appears before you, requiring you to swerve and apply emergency brakes, he revealed that he had pancreatic cancer, an impeding death sentence to be executed in less than a year.
As he continued his presentation, I admit that I had somehow forgot about his terminal illness. Besides the immediate shock that occupied my mind when he first revealed this, his composure and passion stripped us of any opportunity to pity or commiserate him. Although he is a far more eligible candidate than most for throwing a pity fest, he simply refused.
Even though there are probably even more inspirational speakers in this world than aspiring celebrities, he had an unique effect on me. It was as if he placed me on a mechanical bull, jolted me around until i became completely disoriented, led me to suffer a painfully humiliating fall, but in the midst of this, sparked an epiphany in me. I realized that whenever we encounter an obstacle, it seems as if all we are capable of doing is magnifying the problem until everyone we know dwells in our misery as well. As the saying goes, misery loves company, but fortunately Randy Pausch negated this philosophy for me.
