Capstone Integration: What is a life well-lived? This question lies at the center of any mission statement, for our vision for a life well-lived, our values, and how we live in line with these values are deeply intertwined with the missions we set for ourselves. I first want to note that I strongly oppose the idea that there is a single ‘life well-lived’. Based on my experience with our class discussions and the material from the semester, my definition of a life well-lived is based on living in accordance with core values that you establish to be important to you. What you value may change, and therefore your vision of a fulfilling and well-lived life may change as well. But that doesn’t mean that your original vision was somehow an incorrect vision of a life-well lived, it simply means that what you consider to be a life well lived changed. It should be noted that different visions of a life-well lived may have different impacts in our communities. For example, a life based on serving others in the community is markedly different in its effect than one whose idea of a life well lived is constantly exploiting others for personal gain. The only point I’m trying to make is that lives well-lived can look different from each other and for the most part we should not get locked into one path we are told is the best. A carefree surfer that values freedom, carefree living, and deeper connection to the earth through the elegant dance with the powerful waves is an equally valid vision to someone who values going to college and pursuing a professional career. With that being said, we now turn to my personal mission statement, which starts with a question: What are my values? Over the course of the semester, we have looked extensively at what we value in our lives—and how they may have changed over time—through introspection, listening to other’s perspectives of our behavior, and peer discussion of our own experiences. When thinking about what I value, I naturally began by thinking about what relationships and experiences in life bring me the most joy and fulfillment. This thought process pointed me to one thing: shared experiences with friends and family. My happiest moments are good times shared with the people I care about most, so naturally these relationships constitute one of my core values. Though my family often goes on emotional roller- coaster rides, fighting and screaming and yelling almost every day with our wild tempers, we have an incredibly tight relationship in our own weird way. I have two younger sisters, and between the three of us and my parents, some argument or disagreement is always going on, often to the amusement of everyone not involved. But at the end of it all, we all come together and grow. We are always there for each other and treat each other with mutual respect and when we do things together it is fun or memorable in some way. I am also incredibly lucky to have grandparents close by that support us and share in holidays and dinners and fun times together with us. When I was in eighth grade, we moved into their house for over a year when rebuilding our house. I may take it for granted in my everyday life but having a family that is always there for me had been incredibly important to me. Continuing to strengthen these relationships while I can is undoubtedly a core value of mine. The same goes for my close friends. Even though I may be quiet and keep to myself at times, I greatly value having close friends there for me. To me, friendship is incredibly important because it gives you someone to share in both joy and sadness of life with, bringing you closer together and enriching all of life’s experiences. For example, I loved high school water polo. I loved the competition, the physical and mental challenges, and working hard to improve. But most of all, I loved playing alongside my teammates. Going through wins and losses and tough practices build a unique bond between us and made playing with them unforgettable. First core value: strong relationships with family and friends and finding joy in the experiences shared with them. My next core value is simple: honesty and perspective. I tend to have a realistic view of my situation and try to not be affected too drastically by emotional high and lows by keeping my successes and failures in perspective. In my interview with my dad about what he thinks I value, he pointed to honesty. To him, I value not only being transparent with others in my relationships, but also strongly value when others are honest with me. Evidently, the behavior I display to others matches my own internal values. There is not much more to this value then my value on being honest with others, wanting honesty from others, and most importantly, being honest with myself. I also want to note that I want to be honest, but not necessarily in the way of always saying the truth to and being overly exact. You need to be able to sense what to say and what not to and what to share and not to share; there is a necessary level of ambiguity and emotional intelligence to know what to say to preserve relationships, which is at the heart of my core values. In saying I value honesty I more so mean that I want people to be real and vulnerable and allow me to be real and vulnerable. At the heart of my value on honesty is being real and being in touch with reality through good perspective, primarily through the knowledge there are things more significant than my every-day failures in this universe. Second core value: Being genuine and honest, and keeping perspective. Finally, my final core value is confidence in myself and staying true to who I am. That is not to say that I will never change, but it does mean that I will never change who I am because of what other people think or to be accepted by certain people. This value ahs only become more ingrained in college. Coming to college, nobody knows who you really are or what you are like. You can present yourself how you choose. However, I did not make any effort to change my outward persona from what it’s always been, and I am extremely proud of that. My self-confidence has only climbed, and I will preserve this sense of strong identity throughout my life. Third core value: True to myself With my core values established, I can now define my mission statement. My mission is to live a life in which I live through these values to be true to myself, be honest and kind to others, and build relationships with which to share all the ups and downs of my life with. No matter where path takes me, if I can look back and say I made a wholehearted effort to live through these values, I will have lived a life well-lived. IThat is the only success I need. My life could go in countless different directions, but I do not foresee these values changing. That is not to say values do not change, but I have chosen my values as solid, unchanging anchors that keep me grounded in my mission wherever life takes me.