Journey to Happiness

I believe that I am searching for happiness and fulfillment in life. I believe that graduating from the University of Notre Dame and finding success in life with a good job and a family would make me happy. Part of finding happiness is also finding belonging and courage. As Dr. Brown in the first QQC mentions, “Lean into the discomfort of the work.” I’m not a fan of doing uncomfortable things but I realize that I need to find the courage to lean into it and find belonging in a community. Faith also plays an important role in my life because I can’t just live life without believing in anything. The Week 3 QQC mentions “hope directs our desire toward its true end” and I believe that it can help me cope with stress and find happiness in life while motivating positive actions. Faith led me to attend the University of Notre Dame and I hold out hope that I graduate from here being the best version of myself. I am happy to say that I love being part of the Notre Dame community, that I am happy here, and following this path of faith has led me to that.

I believe that I forge life giving relationships by growing our “Adam 2” personalities as mentioned in the Week 2 QQC. “Having hope, faith, and love will develop our “Adam 2” personality.” Building this character of self and remembering the precious moments in life will allow me to build relationships because people will generally respect me when I have moral values in life. It is also important for me to realize what kind of relationship that I would be in. The Red Flag campaign from the Week 4 QQC about forging relationships has allowed me to identify whether I was in a healthy or unhealthy relationship as well help me “trust and support each other and respect each other’s independence in a relationship. This could help me a lot because I too face trust issues frequently. The Red Flag campaign has opened my eyes as it helps me understand what a healthy relationship feels like.

I believe that I grow as a person by pursuing the truth in life as well as acknowledging my own faults and biases. As we seek the truth, I can grow because there are more things that I know about life in general. Not knowing the truth or being in denial will help me because that would just be avoiding reality. And as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said, she received a stereotype from her roommate in the United States even though they have never met. I, myself, have had biases and stereotypes against other people and the sooner that I acknowledge these faults, the sooner I can be free of these stereotypes, further helping me develop as a person. As I learn the truth that I too, also receive biases from certain people, I also grow by seeking out why they have these biases/stereotypes and I can help them clarify anything they need to know about me.

I believe that I am responsible for building life-long memories and stories. It may seem irrelevant right now as most people go to college to focus solely on their academics, however, college is not only for academics. It is about forming stories when we “learn family by sharing a room, taking care of a place together.” Week 5 QQC discusses how stories shape our journey and being part of the Notre Dame community as well as Baumer hall as made me feel like part of a family and I believe that I will form all kinds of stories with the people here, Watching the two Notre Dames and listening to Carla Ann Harris, I realized Notre Dame will help me become a kind and helpful person that cares for and respects for others and I feel that this is my responsibility towards my family who have flown me thousand of miles away to get a good education and become an upstanding citizen.

I believe that my community should learn about each other’s stories and how they became the person they are today. I feel that if more people share their morals, values, and interests openly, it will help them to find long-lasting relationships and other people will also care more about you as a person.Tracing the roots of how we came to be the way we are can deepen our understanding of what is important to our quality of life and whether it is perceived as eroding or improving. As a class, we discussed that most of our peers have parents as their main influences and I feel that by knowing that information, I am closer to them. As a community, we share that quality of life together and if we want to improve, it is pertinent that I know my roommates and other dorm mates’ stories to make sure that our quality of living here at Notre Dame continues on improving till the day we graduate.

I believe that I am made to make my family proud by studying hard here at Notre Dame, have a nice social life filled with long-lasting relationships, and become a successful and kind-hearted person in the future.Father Pete also mentioned that “leaving your family and friends to be here at Notre Dame allowed us to form new relationships with the people around us.” I believe getting good grades at Notre Dame requires help from others and interacting with classmates. This way, I am searching for belonging as we form a community once we study and spend time together. As for becoming a kind-hearted person, I rely on faith and hope that as time passes by, I will become a better person that will help people in need. The text by Professor David Fagerberg mentions “hope directs our desire toward its true end” and if I just keep on thinking positively and believing in hope and myself, I will become the person who I desire and who I plan to become.