In All Earnestness

The Last Lecture is a great read. If you haven’t read it yet, well then stop wasting your time here and go find a copy.

In the Last Lecture, Randy Pausch discusses being earnest versus being hip. I’d never thought of the two as opposites before, but I found it quite enlightening. I’ve always leaned way to the earnest side myself, as in probably a bit too serious, definitely not hip.  As I’ve thought about this I think Randy himself was a great example: happy, very fun loving, and yet earnest in everything he did. That’s just so much cooler than being cool.

Sometimes I have to remind myself to not be too serious. There’s a story that I chuckle at now to remind me about this. After high school a lot of my friends went off to college. One day I went to a friends parent’s house to get her address. I knocked on the door, her little sister answered and I asked for her parents. She asked me why I was there and I said it was about her sister. She then replied with: “Why? What happened to her? Did she die”? Apparently my demeanor was a little too serious for the occasion.

Being earnest is a virtue too often overlooked and undervalued, especially when it’s combined with a cheerful heart. Thanks to Randy Pausch for sharing his many ideas and experiences. Again, I loved the Last Lecture and will probably bring it up a few more times.