Who Needs to Live a Life Well Lived?
	Over the course of this second semester, we had many activities in Moreau class for the purpose of defining a life well lived, as well as developing our own personal mission statements. In the first week we practiced self reflection, a skill that was beneficial for all future Moreau assignments. In the article for the first week author Pico Lyer said, “Whenever I finally force myself away from my desk for a day, of course, I find the opposite: the more time I spend away from my work, the better that work will be, most often.” ("Why we need to slow down our lives" by Pico Lyer, Moreau FYS Week 1) Lyer discusses how while in the past information gathering was a valuable skill, while nowadays, due to the internet, it’s more valuable to be able to sift through information than gather it. Lyer also mentions their personal experience saying: “the more time I spend away from my work, the better the work will be, most often.” It reminds me of when I was in high school and would talk to my friends. Some people would say they spent hours doing an assignment that others would hardly spend any time on and usually the students who spent less time did better. I think part of this (based on my own experiences) is because the shorter sessions are more focused and don’t involve any distractions. Last semester I had a theology assignment where I spent days procrastinating on a paper, only to write the same paper in half an hour after sitting down, having someone hold me accountable, and just focusing on really writing. I also had a similar experience this easter break where I procrastinated sending three emails that ended up taking a collective twenty minutes to complete.
	Over the next couple weeks, we explored the concepts of a life well lived. We talked about inspirations of a life well lived, and watched Hesbugh, a documentary about Fr. Hesburgh and how he brought together the Notre Dame community. (“Hesburgh” Moreau FYS Week 2) One main idea from the documentary was that of bridging the gap between communities to do good. It reminded me of inspirations in my own life, like my father, and how his leadership has influenced me. The following week, we discussed questions that guide a life well lived. In his article, Three Key Questions Fr. Himes defines three questions of a life well-lived: “Is this a source of joy?”, “Is this something that taps into your talents and gifts and uses them in the fullest way possible?”, and “Is this role a genuine service to the people around you, to society at large” (“Three Key Questions” by Father Himes, Moeau FYS Week 3) during the week we did it, I didn’t give Fr. Himes’ questions too much thought in application to my life specifically and more talked in general cases. But his questions do pose a possible answer for whether or not I should do ROTC for the entirety of my college career, a question I’ve been mulling over for a while now.
In weeks four and five, we talked about future career choices, and took a couple of career tests. The VIPS (Values Interests Personality Skills) seemed interesting to me. I’d say that was a good tool to determine how we can navigate getting our first job / how to determine what we would want to do in our futures. (“7 Clues” Moreau FYS Week 4) I personally found week 5 more insightful, specifically the (Conversation Discernment Activity Moreau, FYS Week 5) talking with my friends and family about how I seem to be. Getting an outside perspective not only shone some light on aspects of myself that I had seldomly thought about, but also showed me explicitly, in words, actions that I had taken in the past and the values that could be behind them. It showed how I value not only my, but other peoples’ physical and mental health, acceptance and inclusion, considering all aspects of issues, and helping others. 
In weeks six and seven, we continued to talk about, and define a life well lived. In week 6, we discussed obstacles to a life well lived. One important point from that week was “asking what instead of why” a technique that was recommended in “The Right Way to be Introspective (Yes, There’s.a Wrong Way) (“The Right Way to be Introspective (Yes, There’s.a Wrong Way)” by Tasha Eurich, Moreau FYS Week 6) The video “5 Minutes” was also interesting. I agree with it’s message that gratitude is really important. You can greatly affect how you view almost everything that happens around you by having a different mindset. It might be easier to be frustrated, or to point fingers and place blame on yourself or others, but I’ve found that in the long run I am a lot happier if I focus more on solutions and looking on the bright side. I found that this also applies to relationships, recognising that they change and how people can grow together or apart over time, despite differences. Being grateful for the people around you and telling them as such, was a message that was communicated in the reading for week seven. (“Chapter 8: Jurisdiction” Fr. Greg Boyle, Moreau, FYS Week 7)
After the first integration, we moved away from a life well lived, and began to engage in engaging with the challenges of the world around us and formulating our missions statements. We discussed the idea of embracing other people through the idea of accompaniment. "I'll go with you and support you on your journey wherever it leads; I'll share your fate for a while. And by 'a while,' I don't mean a little while." Accompaniment is about sticking with a task until it's deemed completed, not by the accompanier but by the person being accompanied. (“Teaching Accompaniment: A Learning Journey Together” Professor Steve Reifenberg, Moreau, FYS Week 9) In week 12, Dean G. Marcus Cole’s call to action tells readers “I am committed to doing three things to change this world for the better. Please join me. What three things can you do to make this world a better place? How can I help you?” (‘I am George Floyd. Except, I can breathe. And I can do something’ by Dean G. Marcus Cole, Moreau FYS Week 12) While I don’t have a checklist of three or however many things to accomplish to make the world a better place, I do want to help people, and I do want to be fulfilled not only at the end of my life, but throughout it as well.
Since the week when we initially read it, I’ve grown more skeptical about the article we read in week 10  (“Growing up Gay and Catholic” by Jacob Walsh, Moreau FYS Week 10) in which the author describes how he agreed with the church’s teachings on gay marraige. It seemed like a very Notre Dame article to have us read. Not one that could open the eyes of the much more common catholic members of our community, but to attempt to shine a catholic light on the LGBTQ+ community. I’m fairly certain that the more conservative students reading the article aren’t going to learn anything new from the article, nor are they going to realize that telling people struggling with their identity or sexuality that they’re going to burn in hell for eternity comes off as harmful and hateful, despite their intentions of ‘guiding them to salvation’. This fact became even more clear after reading the university’s mission statement. (“University of Notre Dame Mission Statement” Moreau FYS Week 13) It might be easy to say, well that doesn’t happen, or people who truly follow the Lord wouldn’t do something like that, those people are just hateful bigots. But that’s missing the point. By perpetuating these ideas and being so resistant to change, people can sit comfortably in their echo chambers and will lash out and express hate towards anyone who doesn’t share that belief on other peoples’ identities and other peoples’ happiness.  (“How to Avoid an Echo Chamber” by Dr. Paul Blaschko, Moreau FYS Week 11) What’s worse is that there are children whose parents or guardians are in these echo chambers, they’re forced to suffer because they are dependent on their parents to survive. I get that we’re a catholic university, and the church or the gospel says whatever, but if we want to develop our students into people who can not only achieve a life well lived for themselves, but to help those around them and their children achieve a life well lived as well, we can’t shoehorn catholic beliefs into everything we do. We can present them as an option, but we can’t push anyone to choose them. Or rather we shouldn’t, and yet we do. If I had to say ‘this is the issue that I’m going to tackle during my time at Notre Dame’, it’s probably this. It’s so tiring witnessing people suffer because others with power over them are so hellbent on preventing other people from being happy. God forbid we laugh a little, God forbid we love a little. We talk so much about living a life well lived ourselves, what about letting other people live a life well lived? Other people who might not have had such a curriculum to help them understand the world and themselves. Other people who will inherit this earth from us. These are people who need to live a life well lived. Not just us. Not just Notre Dame. If we want to make the world a better place, everyone should have the opportunity and support to live a life well lived.