Capstone Integration: A Year in Review Harringon Moreau 29 April 2022 The question of the semester: How do I pursue a life well-lived? Throughout the semester we have read different articles to help us figure out what a life well-lived looks for us, and how to achieve it. Below is my integration of the semester: a year in review. I Don’t Enjoy Planning for My Future I am a person that definitely lives in the moment. I don’t enjoy making plans for the upcoming weeks, let alone years in advance. It is stressful and gives me the pressure to make a perfect decision so that I am not in trouble years down the road for a choice my 18-year-old self made. This is why thinking about living a life well-lived is another stressful topic. During Week 4 from this semester of Moreau we focused possible ways one could have a life well-lived. Within this, I focused on careers that allow for people to apply a holistic version of themselves: “The idea is that the best career choices for a person are those that allow him/her to implement as many part of his/her self-concept as possible. If a person only focuses on one or two parts of his/her self-concept for a career, that person will eventually hit a wall.” I myself am planning on continuing as a Mechanical Engineering Major, and I believe this will allow me to discover new areas of life in which I can explore new ways of applying myself. However, my life doesn’t necessarily need to revolve around my career (though it will be a big part of it). This is why I particularly enjoyed Week 1. We practiced self-reflection. Not looking forward to the future and planning out our next moves, but being present in the moment and thinking about what and where we are doing in our lives: “To me, the point of sitting still is that it helps you see through the very idea of pushing forward; indeed, it strips you of yourself, as of a coat of armor, by leading you into a place where you’re defined by something larger.” We talked about how technology is ever-present, which makes the stress of planning future things always there. But taking a moment to self-reflect – taking a moment to turn everything else off and live in the moment – is a good way to better one’s mental health. However, we also focused on personal obstacles for a life well-lived in Week 6, one of which was dwelling on self-reflection for too long: “We can spend endless amounts of time in self-reflection but emerge with no more self-insight than when we started.” One must find a perfect balance so that they are not just focusing on the future, but they are also not exclusively focusing on the past. It’s a healthy medium of growth from past experiences and planning for future ones. Making Change in the World In Week 7 we focused on which relationships are characteristic of a life well-lived and how certain important relationships can be instrumental in persevering through tough times: “We have so much to do, and we must do it together. But how can we do that with all the evil we breathe every day?” People are a collaborative species, and they work together against the evil of the world every day. However, one of these evils is the fact that people are unwilling to change their minds when it comes to topics they are passionate about: “We travel as seekers after answers we cannot find at home, and soon find that a change of climate is easier than a change of heart” (Week 2). This is why, in my future, I want to focus on changing the climate around us (with the help of my peers). Changing our environment will contribute to changing people’s hearts, which will help our society as a whole. One problem that we should work to deal with is the unconscious racism that is present not only in our every-day lives, but in our media as well: “Our centrality in history textbooks, historical representations and perspectives; our centrality in media and advertising; our teachers, role-models, heroes and heroines; everyday discourse on “good” neighborhoods and schools and who is in them; popular TV shows centered around friendship circles that are all white; religious iconography that depicts God, Adam and Eve, and other key figures as white. While one may explicitly reject the notion that one is inherently better than another, one cannot avoid internalizing the message of white superiority, as it is ubiquitous in mainstream culture” (Week 10). This is not necessarily the only problem with race in our media. One that I have noticed recently, and one that I would like to focus on fixing (with the help of my peers) is the fact that it is a big deal to all of us when a person of a minority race does something normal, like win an award or star as the main character of a movie. Though I think it’s great, I also think it should not be a big deal. Instead it should be normalized so that we can make all races equal, none are special. This is one of the many changes I want to see in the world, and I will work hard to achieve it. Helping Others For Week 5 I called my mom about where I am in my life right now what I want to do with the tools I have been given up until this point. We both agreed that though I am in school for Mechanical Engineering, that is not what my main purpose in life is. We talked about for as long as I can remember I’ve been trying to help people with what I am given. In third grade I worked with my friend to start a fundraiser selling bookmarks. We raised six-hundred dollars selling twenty-five-cent bookmarks to students in our classmates. We donated the money to contribute to well-building for our sister school in Haiti. This, however, was just my introduction to serving others. As I grew older, I took a more hands-on approach to service: “As disciples of Jesus we stand side by side with all people. Like them we are burdened by the same struggles and beset by the same weaknesses; like them we are made new by the same Lord’s love; like them we hope for a world where justice and love prevail” (Week 12). Walking with the people that you are helping (walking side by side with all people as disciples of Jesus) is a good form of accompaniment, which is what we focused on in Week 9. The story that we read was about Steve, who planned on helping those in need and actually got help from them: “I still didn’t have the precise language to describe what I learned in Chile. Over the past few years, I have come to realize that the word is accompaniment.” The fact that the word accompaniment didn’t’ come to him for years is a little mind-blowing. But it’s what I’ve been trying to achieve with me more recent forms of service (because I enjoy helping others). Before coming to school, I volunteered at a Women’s Care Center, helping pregnant and new mothers. It was very hands-on, and an amazing experience which I was very thankful for. I think it is applicable to all these weeks. Overall Life Overall, my goal in life is to be happy and make everyone around me as happy as I possibly can. Because of Week 3 I am aware that there is a difference between joy and happiness: “It’s not a matter of whether this makes you happy or not because happiness is affected by many external factors (sleep, illness, hunger, loneliness, etc.). Happiness changes from moment to moment, day to day.” I want to be one of the causes of the change in happiness for all people. I want to be the reason people are happy every day, but do this in an honest way as to not create an echo chamber for people: “Bubbles become echo chambers when groups give up on tolerating diversity of opinion. This insight into the differences between bubbles and echo chambers provides the key to understanding how we can protect ourselves from the dangers that each present to the way that we form our beliefs” (Week 11). Happiness should not come at the expense of one’s growth in his or her beliefs. To finish my integration, and my first-year experience, I include a final (short) copy of my mission statement (Week 13): My name is Lucia, and I am a loving sister, daughter, friend, and full-time college student. I am truly at my best when I am doing something for others, especially when I have a duty to contribute to someone else’s happiness. I thrive on learning new activities and skills. I always make it a goal to understand the task I am given and perfect it to the best of my ability which is why I have had so many different hobbies, such as origami, rubix cube, magic tricks, piano, track, etc. This is why I enjoy meeting and helping new people. It feels like a new task to learn what he or she needs, and I enjoy the challenge. It gives me something to work towards. Helping others and having a job to serve others makes starting an action a lot easier than if it is for oneself. I am dedicated to helping the people around me be the happiest they can be with what they are given. This pursuit will be aided by my love for learning new things, and seeing the happiness of others, therefore causing my own happiness. My ultimate goal is to inspire others to do the same for their own families and friends. Though this may seem like a lot of little changes, I also see it as a really big change in society. Making a little positive difference causes a ripple effect and is the root cause of thousands other small positive differences. My Moreau First-Year experience has truly been an unforgettable one. It’s been a great year for learning about myself, college, and a life well-lived. “Why We Need to Slow Down Our Lives” by Pico Iyer, TED. – Moreau FYE Week 1 "Hesburgh" by Jerry Barca and Christine O'Malley by Jerry Barca and Christine O’Malley – Moreau FYE Week 2 “Three Key Questions” by Father Michael Himes – Moreau FYE Week 3 “Navigating Your Career Journey” by Meruelo Family Center for Career Development – Moreau FYE Week 4 “Week Five Discernment Conversation Activity” – Moreau FYE Week 5 “The Right Way to be Introspective (Yes, There’s a Wrong Way)” by Tasha Eurich, TED Conferences – Moreau FYE Week 6 Why the only future worth building includes everyone” by His Holiness Pope Francis, TED Conferences – Moreau FYE Week 7 “Teaching Accompaniment: A Learning Journey Together” by Professor Steve Reifenberg – Moreau FYE Week 9 “Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism” by Dr. Robin D’Angelo, adapted from Huffpost – Moreau FYE Week 10 “How to Avoid an Echo Chamber” by Dr. Paul Blaschko, ThinkND – Moreau FYE Week 11 “Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross” – Moreau FYE Week 12 “Complete: Writing a Personal Mission Statement Activity” – Moreau FYE Week 13