Imagine sitting around a poker table, anxiously waiting for the dealer to deal the next cards, knowing that if you get a good hand you will win. To your dismay, you stare in shock at the “bad” hand you were dealt. However, it is not necessarily the hand that is bad, but the way you play it that determines your fate. The same goes for life. In life you will always be dealt good hands and bad hands, and sometimes, there is even a brick wall attached to these cards that symbolizes the problems and struggles that accompany these cards. Even if you have a bad hand, if you play your cards right, the bad hand can turn into a successful and winning hand. In Randy Pausch's The Last Lecture, one of the life lessons he advocates is, "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, only the way we play the hand" (17). Furthermore, there will always be a brick wall, or challenges, in the cards we are dealt, and according to Pausch, we possess the power to break down the wall and manage how we react to the cards we are dealt.Randy Pausch, the narrator of The Last Lecture, shares his outlook on life during his final months battling pancreatic cancer. Pausch is a middle-aged man who must balance his family, his loving wife and three young children, and also his career as a professor and mentor at Carnegie Mellon. A few months after receiving the news of his terminal cancer, Pausch was asked to participate in a project called The Last Lecture, in which professors share their knowledge and experiences with Carnegie Mellon students. This opportunity would be Pausch's last chance to pass on his wisdom to his students, colleagues, friends and, most importantly, his family. In his conference, Pausch did not want to talk about death, but about l...... middle of paper ......m, nd Web. 26 May 2014.Schwamberger, Karen. Interview. By Olivia Schwamberger.May 18, 2014Schwamberger, Olivia. Interview. By Julia Baldasare13 May 2014"Homage to Randy Pausch - History." Tribute to Randy Pausch - History. Np, nd Web. May 26, 2014."Randy Pausch Latest Lecture: Making Your Childhood Dreams Come True." YouTube. YouTube, December 20, 2007. Web. May 26, 2014. Vandergriff, Steve. "You can't change the cards you're dealt, only the way you play the hand." Jacksonville.com. Np, July 17, 2009. Web. May 26, 2014. Whitehead, MacKenzie. Interview. By Devin PieplesMay 13, 2014Whitehead, Pamela. Interview. By MacKenzie Whitehead.May 18, 2014Wikimedia Commons. Np, Jan. 14, 2014. Web. May 26, 2014. Yaeger, Dave. “The Star Wars Expanded Universe is dead… Long live the Star Wars Expanded Universe!” Killing time. Np, 27 April 2014. Web. 26 May 2014.