Experience is what you get

Last week the media was all over Professor Randy Pausch's "last" lecture. Part of a series of 'what would you say if it were your last lecture' from prominent academics, it was remarkable in that it was this professor's last. It was memorable, much lauded, gave those of us listening much to think about, and can be seen in its entirety at ABC News. Scroll in the section marked ABC News Programs.

While the talk was full of memorable one-liners, my favorite--and the one I re-listened to so I could write it down--went like this:

"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."

I've thought about this and don't know that I agree 100%. I think you can get experience with a situation even if it is what you wanted. That is, I wanted to go to Australia, I went, everything went very well, and I had a wonderful experience.

But still, I know what Prof. Pausch was saying. When things don't happen the way we foresee, when there's a brick wall thrown up in front of us (he talked about brick walls), then we have an experience we didn't know we'd get.

Perhaps, instead, it was what we needed.