Are you a Tigger?

I just finished reading, The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Some of you may remember him from the Last Lecture that he gave as a professor at CMU that circulated on YouTube. He died on July 25th after battling pancreatic cancer. He lived a remarkable life and was able to pass on many valuable lessons through his book.


One chapter, in particular, caught my attention. He asked readers, "Make a decision...Tigger or Eeyore?" Ask yourself, "am I a fun-loving Tigger or am I a sad-sack Eeyore? This reminded me of a picture of my Dad and I with Tigger at Disney World many years ago (yes, it was the 80's so please excuse the prairie dress and Reebok's). I remember talking to my Dad the night before this picture was taken because we both were hoping that we would find Tigger the next day so we could get a picture with him....and we did. My Dad was a true Tigger in every sense of the meaning, for sure, no doubt there. I'm so grateful that he passed on his 'dedicated Tiggerness" to me.

While reading the book, I realized that my parents instilled many of the lessons he shared. Some of my favorites are:

• "No job is beneath you" -- my very first job was picking strawberries in a hot field all day!
• "The brick walls are there for a reason, to show how bad you really want something"
• "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity"
• "Whether you think you can or can't, you're right"
• "The lost art of thank you notes"
• "All you have to do is ask"

If you're interested in learning more about the Last Lecture and Randy Pausch, here are a few links.

http://download.srv.cs.cmu.edu/~pausch/



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Pausch



http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=4614281&page=1