Integration Three : Moreau First Year Experience: Integration Three 03/04/2022 The Prolific Life of an Ordinary Girl For all the years that I knew , I knew her to be free-spirited and down to earth. Her will to fight for the better in the endless cycle of injustice and inequality was an accurate representation of how far she was willing to go for others. As her friend, colleague, classmate and confidant, I can safely say that she was one of the best persons that I have ever known, and it is with a heavy heart that I give this speech to recount her life. As Father Hesburgh of the University of Notre Dame said, “It’s impossible to have a complete and honest human story if one doesn’t speak of human failings as well as human successes,” (Hesburgh Film, Moreau FYE Week Two). Given that, I will try to be as honest as possible in narrating her life, including both her successes and failures. She was one of a kind, in both her work and personal life. Once, in college, she called me for help on an assignment which focused on self and career discernment. It was simple enough where I would answer the questions, giving my honest opinion on her, and after all these years, one question really stuck with me. She asked, “What would I want to change in the world?” (Moreau FYE Week Five), and the answers swirling in my mind were endless because she was one person always affected by the misfortune of others. So, I settled on a broad overview, simply saying social issues, but of course, she asked me to expand. I mentioned the majority of things I knew her to be passionate about, including racism, global health, educational equity, sex discrimination, accesibility to healthcare, and equal human rights for all around the world. She told me after that she never realized she could do so many things in one lifetime but she would try. And she did. https://notredame.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=10159379-7eca-4549-8581-ab9500c9ecd9 https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1OdEBgRVORveUfdAPka04TptFFYdRZHa9EpAR40JkR74/edit If you knew Kimberly, you knew that she was both a friend, a therapist and so much more. Sometimes, this blunt honesty landed her in hot water with her friends, but the truth was better than a lie. This little character trait of hers made her a great listener, and I would frequently go to her for advice, especially when trying to navigate college. When trying to decipher my major, there was so much pressure placed on me by my family. I thought that the act of choosing a major meant that my life was set in stone, but Kimberly told me that deciding on a major does not determine the rest of your life, (Meruelo Family CCD, Moreau FYE Week Four). About a week later, I declared Political Science as my major, and today I am a successful lawyer, as many of you know. She took this five star quality of hers into her preferred field of clinical psychology, where she opened her own private practice. True to her passions, she strived to make mental care affordable for her clients by drastically reducing the prices for newcomers and taking on donors. She also tried to help her clients when it came to navigating real life financial difficulties outside of her office. Not only did she open a mental health clinic for the people most vulnerable who have a hard time speaking up, but she also actively fought for justice and equality in every sense of the word. Her resilience when it came to fighting for a better world was unmatched, as she spent the majority of time taking on pro-bono clients who were directly affected by acts of injustice committed against them or a loved one. She regularly volunteered at her high school alma mater as an after school tutor on most days and a clinical psychologist on the others. Her flexibility was admirable, as she loved to fill every block and wisely used her time to help others in need. She said that “We seek to create loving communities of kinship precisely to counteract mounting lovelessness, racism, and the cultural disparagement that keeps us apart,” (Tattoos on the Heart, Father Greg Boyle, Moreau FYE Week Seven). The same thing can be said for Kimberly, as she https://undergradcareers.nd.edu/navigating-your-career-journey---moreau/ https://canvas.nd.edu/courses/41060/files/523808?module_item_id=167937 sought to help those in communities where help was not normally offered. Offering a helping hand to those in need was her way of giving back to the communities that served her when she was younger. However, all her success did not come without failure. Kimberly’s biggest challenge was her ability to overthink with her mind going one hundred miles per hour. Her cry for help was once received by myself, as she realized that she took on too many things at once. I mentioned a quote from an article I read prior, stating that, “It’s precisely those who are busiest who most need to give themselves a break,” (Why we need to slow down our lives, Iyer 2014, Moreau FYE Week One). And she took my advice, which almost never happens, but she slowed down her life for a month or so, and after the fact, she was way better than she initially was. When I asked how she did all these things without feeling the pressure of long lasting burnout, she quoted Father Michael Himes, saying “Joy is the delight one takes in being dissatisfied,” (Three Key Questions, Father Michael Himes, Moreau FYE Week Three). Kimberly was joyous, and that was better than being happy. She took pride in knowing and feeling that even if she was dissatisfied at some points in her life with the amount that she was juggling, there would still be joy. She would still be in a state of fulfillment with all that she had accomplished and continued to accomplish. It was never a matter of how happy the work would make her, it was about whether the work she did made a difference in a good light, and that was enough joy to last her a lifetime. Overall, she lived a wondrous life. If she were here, she would, of course, give us all one piece of advice. With all the personal obstacles that we face daily when trying to figure ourselves out, she would say that “Why questions trap us in our past; What questions help us create a better future,” (The Right Way to be Introspective, Tasha Eurich, Moreau FYE Week Six). The key to https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-need-a-secular-sabbath/ https://canvas.nd.edu/courses/41060/files/468294?module_item_id=143819 https://ideas.ted.com/the-right-way-to-be-introspective-yes-theres-a-wrong-way/ finding ourselves and being in a permanent state of joy, is asking what instead of why. It gives us the most positive outlook instead of keeping us in a negative self-loathing cycle.