The Last Lecture is a tradition at many universities, in which a professor is asked to prepare a lecture guided by the question: “If it were your last chance to give a lecture to students, what would you say?”
Conrad Raabe, longtime political science professor and founding director of the University Honors Program, gave Loyola his answer at this year’s event on March 29. The University Honors Program sponsored the event.
Professor Randy Pausch started the “Last Lecture” tradition at Loyola University in 2007.
In Raabe’s lecture, “The Joy of Depression,” he elaborated on the meaning of depression. Raabe’s definition of depression was the loss of creative ability. Being creative isn’t an easy task, he said. According to Raabe, being creative means having the ability to think about the unimaginable.
Raabe used the example of the presidential campaign in his speech — 40 years ago, the idea of a woman or a black man as president was unimaginable, he said.
Raabe also discussed the United States’ endless state of wars with no specific battleground involving bombs and missiles that results in gaining enemies.
The final unimaginable was the search engine Google because it brought a sense of technical creativity to the world. Everyone has the ability to be creative, he said. As long as the thought process remains positive, the outcome will lead to good feelings and happy endings, he said.
Raabe explained the importance of leadership, history and true depression. A vital quality in leadership is the ability to “nudge history, not change it and this gives a sense of accomplishment, he said. However, when there is a decrease in things to nudge, this is when true depression sets in, and this depression leads to personal creativity of joy and depression that makes for excellent leadership.
Students said they enjoyed the event.
“I really enjoyed hearing his prospective on life and how important creativity is. How he has no problems about if he dies tonight on the way home as long as we live a life full of creativity that’s all that matters,” said Brian Parks, political science senior.
Maria Rossi, Student Government Association vice-president-elect and English junior echoed this statement.
“I thought it was brilliant how he related the joy of depression and the joy of living to Loyola specically,” she said.
Bridget Boudreaux can be reached at [email protected].
