Yuhan’s Life: Internal Growth Over External Gain Sister Aletheia once said, “My life is going to end, and I have a limited amount of life.” (“Meet the Nun Who Wants to Remember You Will Die” by Ruth Graham – Moreau FYE Week Three) 1 This is true for everyone, but different people have different definitions for a well-lived life. For Yuhan, a well-lived life includes growth, happiness, and contributions to communities around her. Yuhan always stayed curious and never stopped on her way of acquisition of new knowledge. She believed that curiosity and constant learning were important for her to grow into a more capable and multi-faceted person, and she was always ready for new experiences and adventures. Growing up, she learned to speak four languages. She earned a double degree in college. She was familiar with different types of sports, such as swimming, table tennis, and badminton. She travelled to more than thirty countries in her life. She was a big fan of museums and musical, and she learned to develop an aesthetic capacity through such encounter with art. The north star in her life is learning from new experiences and interacting with new people from different backgrounds. Through the process, she understood herself better and made sense of who she wanted to become and how she would get there. Such 1 nytimes.com/2021/05/14/us/memento-mori-nun.html experiences enabled both external and internal growth and carried throughout her life. “The process of discernment is an ongoing, lifelong endeavor.” (“Discernment Conversation Activity” – Moreau FYE Week Five)2 She developed and strengthened new skills and gained new perspectives as she expanded her potential. Even when she turned old, she kept herself updated with the latest technologies: she could skillfully and flawlessly control operate a self-driving car and use an iPhone 100. You frequently saw Yuhan smiling. For her, happiness was one of her core pursuits. She was observant and appreciated the small details of beauty of life, whether it is birds chirping during her walk around the garden in the early morning or flowers that started to bloom after a long winter. She had an optimistic mind, which enabled her to see things through bright sides, even if she was faced with difficult challenges. Yuhan also enjoyed bringing happiness to people around her. The time people spent with her was never boring; Her sense of humor and quirky remarks never failed to make cheerful conversations. Her homophonic, cross-disciplinary, and multilingual jokes could easily make someone’s day. She was also an excellent listener and companion: you could rely on her if you need some advice about making a big decision or simply need a shoulder to cry on. Most of us, oftentimes, do not know with 100% what our lives are for. For many, they follow the general trend of the society: go to school, earn an undergraduate degree, find 2 docs.google.com/document/d/1yZ7hqvx-u4EuW2nlK-fRbWFiurQm1mZv_KpoeeiN4So/edit a job, establish a family, get promoted a few times, raise the future generations, rest in peace. “It’s only by stepping farther back and standing still that we can begin to see what that canvas (which is our life) really means, and to take in the larger picture.” (“Why We Need to Slow Down Our Lives” by Pico Iyer - Moreau FYE Week One)3 As we look back on Yuhan’s life, one of the most important goals she wanted to achieve in her life was to make a positive impact for people and around communities around her. When she was a little girl, she also used to experience confusion about how she wanted her life to be. She tried to come up with insights——“an intuitive understanding of herself” (“The Right Way to be Introspective (Yes, There’s a Wrong Way” by Tasha Eurich – Moreau FYE Week Six)4. She did not blindly follow what the majority people around her were doing. Through actively exposing herself to resources and engaging in diverse activities, such as volunteer work, internship, and research, she became more and more clearly aware of her “values, interests, personalities, and skills” (“Navigating Your Career Journey” by Meruelo Family Center for Career Development – Moreau FYE Week Four)5 and started to realize that what she wanted was not a worldly success defined by good-looking titles and amounts of money, but creating a positive impact to people and communities around her. We are not alone in the society. Our life is closely related to other people, and their life 3 ideas.ted.com/why-we-need-a-secular-sabbath/ 4 ideas.ted.com/the-right-way-to-be-introspective-yes-theres-a-wrong-way/ 5 undergradcareers.nd.edu/navigating-your-career-journey---moreau/ is inseparable from ours. Like Pope Francis said, “Let us help each other, altogether, to remember that the ‘other’ is not a statistic or a number. We all need each other.” (“Why the only future worth building includes everyone” by His Holiness Pope Francis – Moreau FYE Week Seven)6 The goals of Yuhan’s life were not limited to personal achievements but were more beyond: making a difference to the society. When she was young, she actively devoted her efforts to volunteer work, from teaching elderly people how to use smartphones to make phone calls and view texts to delivering food to homeless people. She worked closely with underrepresented groups and communities, applying her knowledge and skills to make changes in local communities. She did not rest when she turned old: she advocated for attention and care given to elderly people who were prone to be neglected by the society and organized care-giving groups paring up teenage volunteers and elderly people. She developed the capacity to “talk across differences, create trust, and create mutual understanding.” (“Hesburgh” by Jerry Barca and Christine O’Malley – Moreau FYE Week Two)7. Looking back on her life, Yuhan would say that she lived her life well. She found the meaning of life in new encounters and challenges out of her comfort zones, joyful and meaningful interactions with friends and family, and contributions to people and communities around her. She enjoyed her life, and people around her enjoyed her being with us. 6 ted.com/talks/his_holiness_popoe_francis_why_the_only_future_worth_building_includes_everyone/transcript 7 notredame.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=10159379-7eca-4549-8581-ab9500c9ecd9 Yuhan has passed away, but memories of her stay in us. She will be missed, and she will be remembered as a dear family member, companion, and friend.