Follow your passion, follow your heart…

From the inspirational speech by Dr. Randy Pausch, in which he said, “We beat the reaper by living well, and live fully. The question is, what do we do from the time when we are born, and the time when he shows up …. It is not the things we do in life that we regret on our deathbed, it is the things we do not … We will need to find our passion, and follow it, and if there is anything that I learned in life, it is that you will not find that passion in things, you will not find that passion in money. Because the more things and the more money you have, you will just look around, and use that as a metric, and there will always be someone with more. The passion must come from things that feel from the inside, from my experience, that passion will be grounded in people, and your relationships with the people.”

Dr. Pausch has lived a very, very meaningful life. He is a very successful, intelligent, human being, and he directed his knowledge towards the field of Artificial Intelligence, and computer science theory. But what inspired me so much, is how he conducted himself as a man, and the principles and lessons he taught us. We come to this world naked, and we will leave this world in the same state. But, in our lifetime, we will have countless chances to make an impact on the lives of the people around us, from giving advice to friends in need, to donating time and money to victims of natural disasters that we’ve never met before, and most likely never come face to face. He really struck a cord with me when he said that our passion in life, should always be grounded in people, especially our loved ones. In this materialistic world, these virtues are becoming increasingly hard to come by. We should look at ourselves in a mirror once in a while, and give us a mental check up. Are we losing ourselves to the hustle and flow of society, and forgetting what we truly hold dear to our hearts?

I end this little entry with another quote from Dr. Pausch, “I waited until 39 to get married, because it took me that long too find someone where her happiness was more important than mine, and if nothing else, I hope all of you will find that kind of passion, and that kind of love in your life. Thank you.”