Being an undergraduate senior, I am in the process of deciding what I want to do with the rest of my life.  I have that covered, but getting there is the obstacle I have recently come upon.  The realization of what I wanted to do came very unexpectedly.  Last September I received an email from my ex-boss and mentor, Barbara Helfer.  In this email, she suggested that I watch Dateline, as one of her friends was going to be interviewed on the show.  Now, Barb is an incredibly connected woman (she is currently a Director of Software Product Management at Leapfrog, Inc.), so when she spoke, I listened.  The friend to whom she was referring was Dr. Randy Pausch, and he was talking about living with pancreatic cancer and about his Last Lecture.

At the time, I hadn’t heard of Randy.  I had just begun investigating what graduate schools to which I might be interested in applying and Carnegie Mellon University had caught my eye through the doctoral work of many of their students, like Johnny Chung Lee.  Now out of this school with a great reputation and impressive doctoral students came this professor who was nothing short of astounding.  Here he was, dying of pancreatic cancer, yet still possessing an amazing energy and ability to inspire.  And not only was he a computer scientist, but he created a program at Carnegie Mellon to teach the one thing I’ve wanted to do since I was little: make video games.

Promptly after watching the Dateline special, I searched out the video of Randy’s Last Lecture.  I was moved beyond anything that I had thought possible.  Randy’s outlook on life was such that it seemed to infect everyone around him with a love of life.  If there is one thing that I have always valued, it is a love of life.  Beyond that, the ability to inspire others to love life is something that I have always wanted to develop.  Here was this man who, by doing nothing but talking about his life, made me want to have a fuller, more satisfying existence.  I was intrigued and began to investigate not only him, but Carnegie Mellon as well.  It quickly became my dream college and is still the my number one choice of grad school.

In the beginning months of my junior year, around the same time as the Dateline special, I was toying with the idea of graduate school and professorship.  I was semi-tutoring a couple people in computer science classes and really enjoying the rewarding feeling of helping another person understand concepts better.  After seeing Randy, it was like a light flicked on in my head: I realized that I want to be a professor.  I want to help shape the minds of future generations and put my own spin on education.  I have always relished learning and hope to impart that loved of learning on my future students.

In addition to spurring me into seeking a Ph.D. and professorship, Randy’s life and lectures also started to help me glean what I want my major contribution to the world to be; my magnum opus, if you will.  My idea is based off the Alice project, Carnegie Mellon’s educations system to teach students programming … without them realizing they are learning to program.  However, I would like to take this in the direction of game development.  Of course, it wouldn’t be quite the same, as you can’t really obfuscate the fact that you are doing game design, but it’s something I would like to look into.  Entertainment technology is a huge industry that many young people would like to enter.  I wanted to enter that industry from a young age, but never knew where to get started.  Starting out is getting easier, due to the proliferation of tools and literature through the Internet.  It’s a different world than it was even five years ago, let alone the fifteen years since I dreamed up that life direction.  I just want to spur on the imaginations of young people and help them realize their childhood dreams.

Beyond Randy and his dreams, there are several others that, through their actions and personalities, inspire me to forge ahead in my goals.  I have already mentioned Barb, my former boss.  She is one of the most loving, supportive people I have ever met.  Through her highly successful life and her support, I have increased my self-confidence and gained somewhat of a view that I can accomplish whatever I put my mind to.  On the other end of the spectrum is one of my undergraduate professors, Dr. David Reed.  He keeps me grounded and helps prevent me from getting ahead of myself.  The ultimate realist, Dr. Reed makes sure I don’t get too big a head over my achievements.  I feel that is an important thing to have, particularly at important junctures in your life.  Another inspiration of mine is one of my co-workers, Autumm Caines.  She has a rousing interest in academic technology and challenges me to expand my horizons in that field.  Through her, I discovered the wonder of Dr. Michael Wesch, a man who has quickly become another muse of mine.

Due to these extraordinary people, I believe I have found my calling in becoming a professor.  I think it will be much more satisfying to me personally than going strictly into the private sector.  I’m not ruling out the possibility of opening a business — in fact, I still plan to do that at some point — but I think the core of my being would be more satisfied teaching.  It’s an interesting time in my life and I can’t wait for it to start.

If I could have met Randy Pausch before he died, I would tell him this: you have inspired me to change my Eeyore ways and become more of a Tigger.  Thank you for showing that to me.  And thank you to my mentors and sources of inspiration.  You truly inspire the best in me.