Moreau FYE
Capstone Integration
4/29/22
			Reflecting on the positive element of change 

	I, , dedicate myself to living for others. Through my Dad’s actions, I learned that my faith should be bigger than my fears. Through my Mom’s lessons as a child, I absorbed that gratitude helps one focus on the positives in my life. I am grateful for the lessons I learned from my parents. So, I want to use the lessons they taught me to be a more compassionate and loving leader. I have had my fair share of successes as a student, but I should always remain humble. As a disciple of God, I should forgive others when they have wronged me because life is too short for grudges. I am called to serve others with the utmost dignity. My interactions with others are more important than achievements. As said, in the movie it's a wonderful life: “A man with friends is never a failure.”’ If I feel like a failure, I should always remain optimistic when there is seemingly no hope. I should remember that fear is the opposite of faith. I should know that all I need is faith to put my best self forward for others daily. 
Lessons learned in Moreau this semester can help me live out this refined mission statement. I discovered that crafting a personal mission statement takes time and is not always final. First, in order to draft a personal mission statement, you need to be able to define what you want to be and what you want to accomplish; second, you need to identify an influential person; third, you should define your life roles; last, you should be able to craft all of these aspects together (“Adaptation of Stephen Covey's Method of Crafting a Personal Mission Statement” by Stephen Covey - Moreau FYE Week Thirteen). Reflecting on this personal statement I refined for this essay will help me further animate and discover my life’s purpose over the next three years. 
When I am grateful for every new day, I see the world in a more positive light. A way I can practice gratitude is through self-reflection. If a step back and reflect on my life, I can fully discern the positive impact different people and events. In the fast pace of the modern world, we are losing connection with ourselves: “But as fast as geography is coming under our control, the clock is exerting more and more tyranny over us. And the more we can contact others, the more, it sometimes seems, we lose contact with ourselves '' (“Why We Need to Slow Down our Lives” by Pico Iyer - Moreau FYE Week one). As a person who wants to be involved in the world around me going forward in college and beyond, I should try not to lose contact with myself. Practicing self-reflection will help me gain a gracious perspective on life.  I could over the next three find time to practice self-reflection while working out after class or walking around the lakes with a friend during a study break. 
When I practice self-reflection and gratitude, love and compassion will come easier to me. Treating others with compassion in order to bring people together is an admirable goal that I want to frequently accomplish in my life. Through the power of love Father Hesburgh received from God, he was able to unite people to make a positive impact on the world during his lifetime. Father Hesburgh is a great example of uniting people with love and compassion:  “He could bring people together…that’s the kind of leader we need today” (“Hesburgh” by Jerry Barca and Christine O’Malley - Moreau FYE Week Two).  Father Hesburgh showed love by embracing humanity. A famous example of this is when he marched with Martin Luther King in Chicago. Father Hesburgh knew Catholic Social Teaching principles: “promote a society founded on justice and love, in which all persons possess inherent dignity as children of God” (“The Spirit of Inclusion at Notre Dame” by The University of Notre Dame - Moreau FYE Week Ten). Father Hesburgh is a person to look up to when I am called to leadership over the next three years. This summer, I am serving as a student leader at the alumni association’s Notre Dame family service camp. During next schoolyear, I hope to embrace humanity by leading my friends back to some of those sites to serve because there is great need in the south bend community.  
In order be a leader of love and compassion, I must practice humility and forgiveness throughout my college years. When looking back at my life as we did with the eulogy assignment, I want people to remember  in college as a humble and forgiving guy (“Integration Three'' by  - Moreau FYE Week Eight). In order to be a humble person over the next three years, I could take a step back from my opinions and learn other people’s perspectives on issues in class and social settings. For example, if someone says something I do not particularly agree with I should not walk away ignore them. In order to grow in wisdom, I should ask listen first, ask them questions to glean a better perspective on that specific issue, and then share my opinion. This is a necessity because as a society we are becoming more polarized: “we are losing our sense about how someone might disagree” (“How to Avoid an Echo Chamber” by Dr. Paul Blaschko, Think ND - Moreau FYE Week Eleven). In the Notre Dame community, if I model listening to different perspectives, others might do the same. If I am criticized for having a different viewpoint than someone, I should learn to forgive them for degrading my perspective. Over the next three years, practicing humility and forgiveness will help me live an overall happier life. 
If I can forgive others, I will be able to respect their dignity throughout my college years. In order to uphold someone’s dignity, I must be able to ask the right questions: ‘Why’ questions trap us in our past; ‘what’ questions help us create a better future” ("Fives Minutes” by The Grotto Network - Moreau FYE Week Six). Asking why questions might possibly come off as hypocritical and less forgiving. Whereas, asking what questions imply care about a person’s well-being or their dignity. An exemplar “what” question might go along these lines: what is going on today, what classes are taking you taking, or what major are you pursuing. In order to further respect others' dignity, I must also acknowledge their role in forming my personality and ideas as a person. In other words, once you realize someone’s dignity, you acknowledge they have an impact on your life. In Week Five, I was given the opportunity to discern other people can have an impact on my career discernment. I talked to my Dad and this made me realize I possessed various strengths I did not know about in the past (“Conversation Discernment Activity”, by  - Moreau FYE Week Five). If I can acknowledge others' dignity over the next three years, I will be prepared to be a solid adult in my career. 
Acknowledging a person’s dignity will help me strengthen and formulate new relationships over the next three years. I must reflect on my strong relationships with my Dad in order to form new strong connections over the next three years. My Dad makes me feel important whenever we are together by recognizing the goodness that I didn’t even know I had in me. This is something I want to carry into my relationships in my dorm next year – helping people realize their good qualities.  I must realize that building these relationships is my choice: “Solidarity, however, is not an automatic mechanism. It cannot be programmed or controlled. It is a free response born from the heart of each and everyone” (“Why the Future Worth Building Includes Everyone”, by Pope Francis, TED - Moreau FYE Week Seven). There is a sense of gratitude and excitement in realizing that I am free to form relationships.  I cannot wait to build new relationships at my dorm and in Notre Dame classes like I did with my gateway peers this year. If I can build and strengthen current relationships while forging similar connections, I am enthusiastic about the future.
People enjoy optimistic people in relationships. But personal optimism is also a key to success, especially in college. Sister Aletheia has a wise quote on optimism: “It’s actually in facing the darkest realities of life that we find light in them” ("Meet the Nun Who Wants You to Remember You will Die", by Ruth Graham - Moreau FYE Week Three). If I experience hardships, I can learn lessons from that encounter to better ourselves in the future. An optimistic person experiences life through the ups and downs: “The only way to know more about yourself is to test the waters - just get out and experience life!” ("Navigating Your Career Journey”, by Meruelo Family Center for Career Development - Moreau FYE Week Four). Experiencing the good and bad while having a positive attitude will enable me to get to know myself on a deeper level. I will face challenges with a difficult class or possibly a friendship, but remaining optimistic in these scenarios will help me overcome these difficulties.
In the face of adversity, I should turn to my faith. As a person of faith, I believe in the inherent goodness of the world. Therefore, I should attempt to bring out the best in the world around me. Professor Stephen Reifenburg has a meaningful insight of how to bring about societal change: “Any attempt to bring about meaningful, positive societal change needs to be made thoughtfully, respectfully, and collaboratively” (“Teaching Accompaniment: A Learning Journey Together”, by Stephen Reifenburg - Moreau FYE Week Nine). Social change cannot be accomplished by an individual, it must be carried through by a society together. Dean G. Marcus Cole has an insightful perspective on the hate present in society: "I am convinced that men hate each other because they fear each other. They fear each other because they don’t know each other, and they don’t know each other because they don’t communicate with each other, and they don’t communicate with each other because they are separated from each other" (“I am George Floyd, except I can breathe. And, I can do something” by Dean G. Marcus Cole - Moreau FYE Week Twelve). In general, Dean Cole implies that humanity does not have faith in each other because they fear each other. As a person who wants to impact the world in a positive way, I should show that I have faith in humanity - in order to alleviate fear leading to hate. I hope to alleviate fear and hate in the Notre Dame community by creating solidarity. I can stand with my fellow students if they are aggravated, stressed, lonely, or sad. This can be done by talking or sending a text to someone that is feel these emotions that can potentially lead to hate. 
I am glad to have had the opportunity to write this integration to reflect on my personal mission. Throughout writing the paper, I was reminded that my personal mission statement is going to constantly be refined. This is because I was rephrasing ideas as I wrote my reflection. Like my personal mission statement - life will change. I should have faith in change. I am grateful for Moreau this year because it gave me the opportunity to reflect with courage on that change.