Greer 

Father Kevin Sandberg
Moreau 2
29 April 2022
Impact versus Achievement: Before Time Sneaks Away
	From the beginning of the semester, we began to dive into the idea of if being a student in college is simply training for a numb, uneventful experience that is purely success driven. Our first week of reading, the quote “I might be miserable, but were I not miserable, I wouldn’t be at Yale” (Deresieqicz), perfectly highlighted this idea for me (week 1). Would I be miserable in order to stay at Notre Dame? In order to become a successful lawyer? In order to achieve as opposed to impact? That’s the main question that arises for me in my thoughts on the future of my life. Are achievement and impact opposing ideas? Often I find that the largest impacts are made by those who go against the conventional ideas of achievement and fight against the way things are.
	Father Hesburgh is an example that comes to mind when I think of impact (week 2) He went against conventional ideas of education and leadership in order to have a great impact on the lives of those around him. He was able to fight for justice and strive towards great education for many. He wanted the students at Notre Dame to be impactful. Something that also stood out to me is that Father Hesburgh did not lose his joy. There is no doubt that he was a busy man and had much to stress about and work to do, but from every account I’ve seen of him he remained joyful.
	In the same way that Father Hesburgh is inspired by social change, this is something that inspires me. I shared in my week 8 integration assignment some of the injustice that I had faces within my own community in Louisiana, and how I am attempting to make an impact back home. I believe that my experience within the Moreau class had a great influence on me and gave me the strength and bravery to speak up to those who used to have power over me. I was no longer willing to accept the feigned expressions of peace and love. “You loved me wrong,” (Greer) I wrote in my message to former staff members. This idea of inspired bravery translates perfectly to my next topic.
	The idea of mentorship is one that is very interesting to me. The quote “we all have a need to be seen,” (Parks)(Week 4). in some ways embodies how I see mentorship, but I also think that along with being seen, seeing something inspiring is necessary for mentorship. Father Kevin, I would describe you as a mentor, because of the way you function in life inspiring me in many ways. As mentioned before, the bravery that I have been granted in order to attempt a genuine impact in my communities is in a large part due to the messages received from Moreau. You are fully aware that the “Moreau” that you run is very different from the general curriculum. Your genuine approach to teaching this course has left me feeling inspired and striving towards achievement not for myself but for the world that I may impact. Your enjoyment of so many diverse things in life and impact on the lives of others is something that I would like to achieve.
	When looking to the not so distant future the three questions of is this a source of joy, does this make use of my skills, and will this serve others are essential for the idea of impact over achievement (Himes)(Week 3). Being able to recognize how my God given skills can be applied in a way that not only helps others, but satisfies my day to day desire for joy will be a necessary skill for me to build up in order to lead a happy and fulfilling life. Too often I have seen or heard stories of intelligent people who get into a career path for money or because it's the normal pipeline, and they are miserable. I do not want to discover ten years after making a decision that I had wasted ten years of my life away. 
	Time and memory have a very complicated relationship in my mind. While I am often told how much time I have and how young I am, I still feel that it is constantly slipping away far too quickly. I receive flashbacks from my phone of events that occurred two years ago and I can’t help but realize how quickly everything moves. While the pace of time is relative and very hard to comprehend as it seems that it can move both slow and fast at the same time while reflecting on the same events, the quantity of time seems less complex to me. All time is temporary and can never be returned. In only ten months I will most likely be twenty years old, which on average would be a quarter of my life. But at the same time nothing is guaranteed. I see time as something constantly hovering around zero. The idea that we should live each day like it is our last is something that has stuck with me for the past two years. My impact on Earth cannot wait until I have “achieved” enough and am then able to veer off and make a change. My impact must be the change and time will not slow down in order for me to check the boxes that an achieving world has laid out for me.
	I desire to make people happier in my day to day life. I desire to impart wisdom and receive wisdom from those around me. I want to be a mentor and experience mentorship, because I do not believe that being a leader is ever really a one sided thing. I find that true leaders are those who interact in the most meaningful ways. Too often I see the term leader being used to show those who are “greater” or “above” others. I think that the true leaders are those who realize that at the end of the day we are all at the same place. Impact over achievement and people over prestige. That is the type of leader that I would like to be both during and after my experience at this University.