Moreau FYS- Integration 3



Prof. David Pruitt
Moreau FYS
March 4, 2022

A Life Well-Adjusted

We gather here today to celebrate the life of a man whom many of us considered to be a

truly great individual, a person who was intelligent and funny yet still down to earth and humble,

a person who many of us looked to for inspiration.  did everything in his own

unique and interesting way, always applying himself and his skillset wherever he could. He even

left this world in his own unique and interesting way: attempting to Evel Knievel a Formula One

car across the Grand Canyon in order to raise money for charity. Many of the individuals

gathered here today would probably state in a heartbeat that this man lived his life well, that “he

brought with him a reputation of a values based leader.”1 However, there are a select few among

us who have known Luke for quite a long time, a period that goes back to when nobody outside

of his family would have stated that he was on the path to a life well-lived. In fact, quite the

opposite was true. He preached back then that he lived by the same rhetoric that he did in the

later years which we all remember him by, yet his lifestyle did not match his words in the

slightest. He always took the easy way out of a situation, whether it was choosing to stay at home

or in his dorm room instead of going out and building up a meaningful set of relationships or

waiting until the last minute to start a major assignment or study materials for an upcoming

exam. Despite the fact that “[he] want[ed] to feel the pride of [his] own accomplishments”2 and

forge a legacy that would distinguish himself from his father and his own achievements, young

 was probably one of the laziest human beings you could ever meet. All that talent,

2 “Week Five Discernment Conversation Activity” by Todd Howard- Week 5
1 “Hesburgh” by Patrick Creadon, quote by Nancy Pelosi- Week 2



all those intellectual skills, and yet the place where you would most likely find him would be on

his couch playing minecraft.

To those of you who are just learning about this side of Luke’s life, you are most likely

now wondering to yourselves as to where did things switch around so drastically? At what point

did Luke adjust himself to go off and live his life to the fullest? Well, during his freshman year in

college, Luke’s carefree lifestyle began to catch up to him in the form of missing and late

assignments as well as sleeping through some of his classes. These faults had occurred several

times before during his highschool years, yet the increasingly unforgiving nature of college

academics meant that there were less opportunities to make up for such behavior, and his parents

were not going to help him pull through this time. When midterm grades finally made their way

to his inbox, Luke knew the kind of news he was going to receive, yet he was still unprepared for

the way it would make him feel. Spring break quickly turned into a complete mental evaluation

of the way in which he lived his life, a brainstorm of how to avoid such suffering again in the

future. However, the internal conversations led Luke to believe and adhere to a simple yet

valuable truth, that “suffering is part of our lives. It is always there, but it is about how to

respond to suffering.”3 His efforts to avoid suffering had only caused him more, all the while

teaching him nothing of value. If he was to avoid suffering going forward, he decided he would

paradoxically have to embrace it. And just like that, the old Luke was dead and the one we knew

and loved was born.

College academics soon became a breeze for the gifted young man, with the magical

powers of a well-constructed schedule granting him more free time to play video games than he

ever could have imagined. Yet while listening to people congregate outside of his dorm room on

the weekends, he came to realize that the principle of dealing with suffering head on applies to

3 “Why Does God Allow Suffering” by Dr. Jihoon Kim- Week 6



social situations as well. After all, the only way to know more about yourself is to…just get out

and experience life.”4 Traditionally an introvert, Luke had trouble introducing himself to others

on his own accord, always fearing that he would make a fool of himself or appear weird for

interjecting himself into someone else’s space. Even though those sentiments were still fresh in

his head as a freshman, he fought through it, ripping himself out of his mental and physical

comfort zones to get to know his fellow Notre Dame undergraduates. It took some time, yet by

the end of freshman year, after many parties and many regrettable decisions, Luke was an

outgoing individual who could be found livening up a social gathering almost anywhere on

campus.  He now knew that “the future is made… of encounters, because life flows through our

relationships with others.”5 A sense of empathy, a trait which Luke had usually sorely lacked due

to his shut-in lifestyle, had also begun to increase in him via his now myriad encounters with

other college students, slowly transforming him into a reliable shoulder to lean on and a member

of several charitable organizations.

By the time he graduated Notre Dame with his Management and Consulting degree, Luke

Howard was every bit of a model citizen, an outgoing and caring individual who everyone

seemed to know and respect. However, just because he had changed significantly did not mean

that his goal of achieving success and creating his own legacy was no longer present. If anything,

the desire had become stronger over the course of his college career, and now, as a result of his

life adjustments, he had the necessary skill set to capitalize on that desire. I will not bore you

with the details of what happened from then on. We have all heard the story a thousand times by

now, some of us even experiencing it firsthand, of how Luke’s invention of the autonomous

frisbee revolutionized the very way in which we live our lives, yet I would still like to mention

5 “The Future You” by Pope Francis- Week 7

4 “Navigating Your Career Journey- Moreau First Experience Course” by the Undergraduate Career Services- Week
4



the attitude with which he went about doing it. Such hard work to any normal human being

would appear to be the epitome of needless suffering, yet one could clearly see that Luke derived

a genuine sense of joy from it all. He may not have always seemed happy or upbeat, but one

must remember that “joy is the delight one takes in being dissatisfied…it is the deep delight that

one feels in being called to something still before you.”6 He also, thanks again to his now

legendary planning and scheduling skills, always found the time to take a necessary breather,

despite being constantly on the bleeding edge of innovation. My guess as to why he would

always set aside time would be that since “the people who seem wisest about the necessity of

placing limits on the newest technologies are, often, precisely the ones who helped develop those

technologies, which have bulldozed over so many of the limits of old,”7 he realized the

importance of a break. Without them, he would most likely have never had the impact that he

did.

I tell you all this not to make this day any harder than it needs to be, but in order that his

example may, even in death, continue to inspire each and every single one of you. In his early

years,  was anything but remarkable, yet life does not have to be defined by your

failures and shortcomings. Instead, life is defined by how you respond to said failures and

shortcomings, how you adjust yourself to live your life well.

7 “Why we need to slow down our lives” by Pico Iyer- Week 1
6 “Three Key Questions” by Fr. Michael Himes- Week 3