Week 14- Capstone Integration Three Helm Moreau First Year Experience April 29, 2022 Discerning a Life Well Lived As the academic year comes to a close it is nice to reflect on all that we have learned. In our final QQC, I stated my mission statement and discerned it the following way (Moreau FYE Week Thirteen). Over the course of this semester, I have realized that my mission aligns with Mendoza's school of business’s motto of “growing the good in business.” Although this is not my main purpose in life I think that this statement can apply to everything. I want to grow the good in every person I encounter, every place I go, and in everything that I do. I hope that my career will uphold these same values to bring a positive light into the world. As I have discussed in my previous QQC assignments, it has been difficult for me to see what my life will look like and how I can use a thing like business, which typically has a bad reputation, to be successful and help others. I think that over the course of the semester I have realized that this is possible and Mendoza and Notre Dame are working every day with students to help them come to that realization. In order to live a well-lived life, I want to improve the lives of others. This might not be through my career even, but possibly family. I think that I can also achieve this through a religious aspect. By continuing to practice my faith I can become more grounded in order to insure that I am able to pursue my mission. I also think that my belief in God will help me to embrace humanity, take responsibility, and act with courage. The first step to completing this mission is taking time for self-reflection. In Pico Lyer’s opening statements he exclaims, “The idea of going nowhere is as universal as the law of gravity; that’s why wise souls from every tradition have spoken of it.” (“Why We Need to Slow Down Our Lives” by Pico Iyer - Moreau FYE Week One) I think this is a great analogy because it associates self-discovery with natural and traditional laws and ideas. I think that taking a break or slowing down is crucial in this time because technology is somewhat of disruption to our natural or human state. I previously recounted my Outward bound trip freshman year of high school. During this trip, we were split into groups of about a dozen kids and had to navigate the Appalachian mountains. We had to hike and navigate, learn survival skills to get through the August storms, work together, purify the water, make meals, and set up camps. We also engaged in a solo part where we were able to reflect and write a letter to ourselves that we would receive a year later. During this solo, I wrote about how thankful I was for all the great things and technology we have today. The trip and reflection time really put things into perspective. Everything about it was so memorable and crystal clear in my mind even though I don't have many pictures or videos to remind me of it. I think this proves how slowing down can be extremely helpful. The opportunity I had to share time with a group of kids I may have never known is priceless and the self-discoveries I made about myself and the privileges I have on a daily basis was something I could never get by reading it on the internet or watching a video of someone else doing these things. From that trip on I was able to put my life into perspective and https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-need-a-secular-sabbath/ https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-need-a-secular-sabbath/ learn to live my life in a meaningful way. In order to live out my mission statement, I will need to take time to reflect and step back from the rush in life. Living out a life well lived might also require you to identify people or actions that you admire. In Week 2 we watched a documentary about Hesburgh and all the inspiring things he did(Moreau FYE Week Two). I think that you have to identify some inspirational people, question how they did what they did, explore how that can apply to your life, and discern your own life by putting your thoughts into action. Father Himes is questioned about “what others need from you?” I think this is another really good question(“Three Key Questions” by Fr. Michael Himes - Moreau FYE Week Three). How do we know if we are helping or hurting others? All of these things are very philosophical questions I’m not sure I can really come up with an answer for. A lot of people turn to God or religion to answer these big questions and I find myself doing the same. It's hard to watch things be out of your control but putting faith into a higher being helps to settle my mind and to feel like these big questions have some sort of answer. Personally, I think about what it means to live a “good life” a lot. I often think about my day before I go to bed and I think about what I have done for the world to make it better or to advance my future. It's hard to do this today because it doesn't seem like you are making any progress, but eventually, I look back over the years and see some good and bad things that I have done. No one is perfect so there are always going to be some bad memories or moments but you have to look on the bright side of things and think positively in order to truly enjoy and live life. If you are always negative you will never see the enjoyment in life. Just as I was saying before, you have to experience some bad things in order to enjoy the good moments, but that doesn’t mean you should dwell on the past. “Every experience shapes you in some way, whether you realize it at the time or not!” (“Navigating Your Career Journey” by Undergraduate Career Services - Moreau FYE Week Four). Experiencing and exploring what a life well lived is vital to living out my mission statement. While career might not be the only factor of a life well-lived, it may feel like there's a lot of pressure in that area of people's lives. But my takeaway is that no matter how much you like or dislike a job or class, that experience factors into who you are. Discerning who you are and how you want to live your life also requires you to ask others to help you. In Week 5 I had a conversation with my mom that made me more self-aware and conscious of my actions (Moreau FYE Week Five). I have to be self-aware and aware of others in order to live out my mission to help other people. The relationships you build also contribute to your life’s experiences that shape who you are (Moreau FYE Week Seven). Not only do these people help you discern your life, like my mom in the other example, but you go through life with these people and create memories together. I feel like the relationships I have in my life are vital. Although I wouldn’t say that I am a dependent person, I would say that my friendships and relationships with family are some of the most important parts of my life. When I was leaving for college it was really hard because I realized how much I valued those relationships with those people. The thought of losing people was really difficult. I think that it made it difficult for me in the beginning of the school year https://canvas.nd.edu/courses/40380/files/467832?module_item_id=143473 https://undergradcareers.nd.edu/navigating-your-career-journey---moreau/ because I felt like there would not be people or relationships like those. Although I was right, I would never have relationships like those ones. And over the break, I was talking with my friends from home and one of them said, “well of course there isn’t going to be friendships that are identical to ours and the ones you have here, you have different relationships for different reasons.” This really sucked for me because I realized that the friends and relationships I was making at Notre Dame had different meanings and reasons. The friendships that I had at home are very strong and I have a lot of trust in those people, as I have known them my whole life. But the people I have met here have a different kind of shared experience and I am glad that I am able to meet so many different people from different backgrounds. There are going to be a lot of obstacles along the journey both in my whole life and the rest of my time at Notre Dame, but there are many preventative measures that will guide me back towards my goals (Moreau FYE Week Six). The first is my faith. Going to mass and the grotto has been a calming weekly tradition that helps to get my week off to a good start. The second is to take time to reflect. Like I was talking about previously, self-reflection and meditation help to ground yourself and help to make the best decisions for yourself. I recently started practicing some of the things on the “ways to practice mindfulness” activity this semester (“Ways to Practice Mindfulness” by Campus Ministry - Moreau FYE Week Six). Every weekday I get up early for my classes to work out. But this is complemented by ten minutes of yoga and at least 3 minutes of meditation/mindfulness. Some Days I wake up and don't feel like working out but I always do meditation or yoga at a minimum. This has really helped me reflect on my day, week, or month. So far these practices have allowed me to slow down for just a few minutes of the day. I really like doing this in the morning because it gets the juices flowing in my mind and often gets me excited for the day. One of the things on the activity was the Headspace app, which I have used in the past. It is really helpful to have someone there or feel like someone is there to guide you through because if you just sit there in silence it is much harder to focus. This is one of the ways we can help cope with responding to suffering. It becomes really difficult to live in this world where we can see people suffering every single day. But I can also see how too much thought about the world could be a bad thing. Sometimes in philosophy class or after class, I get into a spiral of thoughts that make me feel bad about how the world is. But rather than making people sad, we need to find new ways to “be awoken from [the] dormancy” of our dreams (“Teaching Accompaniment: A Learning Journey Together” by Carolyn Nordstrom - Moreau FYE Week Nine). I personally have struggled to come to terms with myself as I think I often set my expectations pretty high and when I don’t meet those expectations I begin to have the negative feelings I was just talking about (Moreau FYE Week Ten). For example, when playing golf in high school I was pretty set on trying to go to college for the sport. But over time and hundreds of rounds of misery, I decided to take an alternate path because I knew I would struggle through college golf. Even the slightest mishap in a given round of golf would turn my mind into a whirlwind of concern and anxiety. I would overthink how that shot is affecting everything and because I was playing at a higher level I was overly aware of all the strategies and tactics I had learned. This came down to the half-shot, inch, even millimeter. I https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SEXhurkurERNVdy8sgNwZaAKTAr-385q/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SEXhurkurERNVdy8sgNwZaAKTAr-385q/view https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hZbSdVImfn2hZDqMrdL96dZCNOtHuf6C-lg3sH-Rs30/edit was torn apart after every round and it became really difficult to love and forgive myself. These experiences account for only part of my life and I can sympathize with many people from this. I hope to embrace others for who they are so that they will realize their self-worth and be able to accept themselves. Finally, I think one of the most important things to consider when trying to live out your mission statement is to keep an open mind. As we talked about in Weeks 11 and 12, it is extremely important to show your support or allyship to other groups and individuals. We need to avoid “bubbles” and “echo chambers” and keep an open mind with everything we do. To live out my mission statement for the rest of my time at ND I think I should participate in more activities such as the allyship activity in Week 12 (Moreau FYE Week Twelve). For my allyship activity, I attended the “Vintage is the New Black” fashion show at Jordan Hall Atrium this past weekend. The event was organized by the Black Cultural Arts Council (BCAC) at Notre Dame. I thought that the BCAC did a great job of supporting the arts and African American rights and I hope to continue to serve as an ally to them in the future. I think going to events like this really opened me up to a whole other side of campus. I go to see people I might have never run into otherwise. In conclusion, I hope to live out my mission to “grow the good in business” for the rest of my time at Notre dame and in my career. Although I think the journey will be difficult, sticking to my faith, taking time to meditate and reflect, and keeping an open mind and heart will keep me on track. When I look back at my time at Notre Dame I don’t want to say I wish I did this or that; I hope to take every opportunity with every club, class, and, most importantly, relationship to grow myself and help to be positive in a constantly negative world.