Bonus time

Did you hear about Randy Pausch on GMA back in September? Some of you have heard me go on about him and how cool I think he is. He's a man in his mid 40's who has had an amazing career and is a professor at Carnegie Mellon, he is married and a father of 3 young children, and he's dying of pancreatic cancer. He gave this amazing "last lecture" which has been all over the media so if you're interested, you can see it online. I think about him a lot and actually check his updates on his web site. He is still healthy and doing what he can, which is a lot. The amazing thing about this man is his zeal for life. He is fit, active, involved in everything he's dreamt of doing, he celebrates life in a way some people never bother to even think of. I don't pity him, I admire him.

Marty thinks it's depressing when I focus on things like this, but I like to take it like Randy offered it... life is what you make it, so go for it! Randy and his wife refer to any extra time he's earned from drug treatments as "bonus time". And yes it's trite...but what would you do if you only had a day or a week of life left? Isn't every day a bonus? I think about stuff like that. I think it's important to think about stuff like that.

I'm happy to report that I wouldn't be doing anything differently. If funds were unlimited, I might be doing what I'm doing in a variety of locations, such as Alaska, Hawaii, among others...but I'd be spending my time with my family as I am right now. I wouldn't be working on a research project or a degree, I wouldn't be working on anything except being with the people I love.