Microsoft Word - Capstone Integration.docx Driscoll 1 Capstone Integration Using Values to Create Personal Goals I. Personal Mission Statement (“Writing a Personal Mission Statement Activity"— Moreau FYE Week Thirteen): I strive to place love and faith at the forefront of my decision making. I will always attempt to center my life around love. I wish to act in ways that bring my loved ones closer to me rather than push them away. I believe that love is the best part of life, and I am dedicated to fostering love in my actions so I can bring joy to myself and others around me. I will continue to let my faith grow at Notre Dame by embracing the opportunities of faith around me. When I act, I want to see what brings others joy so I know how to bring them joy in the future. It is essential that I do not act only in my best interest, but that I also have a positive effect on those around me. Bringing others joy will improve lives, which in turn will bring myself joy as well. Though being courageous is a challenge, I hold myself responsible to always maintain courage, despite status quos that tempt me to follow what everyone else is doing. I will attempt to prevent my personal struggles from changing my beliefs or perspectives by making me a more pessimistic person. I will take advantage of opportunities to have discussions with peers, even though topics may be difficult to talk about. It is important to me that even when I disagree with someone, we will have a respectful environment and a safe area to discuss differences and understand each other’s perspective. I will not allow myself to be close-minded or self-centered Driscoll 2 when I partake in these important discussions. I want to stay true to my values and never act hypocritical. II. My mission statement captures what I have learned about myself and my goals throughout my experience in Moreau, and how I will use this knowledge to act in the coming years. I have learned about role models, and how I want to utilize the actions I witness in others in my own life. One of the major role models that I have learned about through Notre Dame is Father Hesburgh. As demonstrated in his movie, he was extremely resilient and faithful, which allowed him to accomplish many great things throughout his life ("Hesburgh” by Jerry Barca and Christine O’Malley—Moreau FYE Week Two). Specifically, I want to model some of my actions after Father Hesburgh by aiming to conquer big challenges and maintaining courage and strength, even through failures and suffering. This course has shown me additional ways in which I can use my faith to model my life. First, inclusivity is extremely important to me, and it is important to love each person, despite the differences that exist among us. The Catholic faith should be a welcoming environment where no person should be afraid to be themselves, even if they were taught that they “should” be something different than they are ("Growing up Gay and Catholic" by Jacob Walsh—Moreau FYE Week Ten). So, in my actions I will make sure to always be loving and friendly to all that I encounter. I have deepened my understanding of my wish to prioritize people and spending time with others. This began with my discernment conversation; seeing that other Driscoll 3 people view how my spirit lights up when I get to spend time with the people that I love is really motivating to hear ("Week Five Discernment Conversation Activity"— Moreau FYE Week Five). I will strive to maintain this quality in my personality and prioritize my relationships, even when I get stressed or overwhelmed. I actively seek to recognize the value that people add to my life. Coupled with spending time with people who add value to my life is spending less time doing things that take away from my life. One of the things that I do that takes up many hours of my time is using technology; I know that I spend too much time on my phone and on social media, and I want to be better, because I know that phones are a constant distraction to people and cause them to fall behind, as they are not living in the present moment ("Why We Need to Slow Down our Lives” by Pico Iyer—Moreau FYE Week One). I want to put my phone away more often, which will allow me to have more meaningful social experiences as well as live life more in the present. I have learned to live life slowly, one day at a time, and appreciate everything I have so I can fully experience life. It often becomes too easy to focus on what others have or what could have been ("5 Minutes” by Aria Swarr—Moreau FYE Week Six). But I have come to realize that this mindset is pointless, because if there is nothing I can do to change the situation and better myself, then it is useless to think about. With that, another one of my goals is to maintain a positive mindset and be more optimistic, as this will add joy to my life and lessen unnecessary pain. The text “Three Key Questions” defines joy as “a genuine rightness of how one lives one’s life,” and personally, I define this rightness as avoiding thinking about unchangeable things ("Three Key Questions” by Father Michael Himes—Moreau FYE Week Driscoll 4 Three). I hope that avoiding these trivial thoughts will help me be less anxious, and I believe lessening my screen time will further enhance my joy because I will not be comparing myself as much to people that I see online. Although I will try to avoid thinking about things that cause unnecessary pain, I know that suffering is meaningful and inevitable, so I will try my best to grow from it, especially during academic failures, which have always been a struggle of mine to overcome. I will utilize faith to overcome each journey and hardship, always remembering that God will eventually “[rescue] us from the injustice we suffer and also from the injustice we inflict” ("Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross"—Moreau FYE Week Twelve). I believe that in the coming years, faith will be a great tool in making me a more resilient and hopeful person. For me, living more in the present also means not constantly stressing about the future. I often succumb to the pressure that I should have an entire life plan laid out in front of me, especially as a student a prestigious university. Young adults are faced with the heavy weight that comes from choosing a major and discussing potential careers, which can be very harmful and a huge stressor ("Navigating Your Career Journey” by Meruelo Family Center for Career Development—Moreau FYE Week Four). In the future, I will aim to still work very hard, but also hold the belief that everything will eventually work out, and I should enjoy my youth before it slips away. I have learned that I constantly need to reassess my values and examine my actions to make sure I am living up to my own expectations. For instance, loving everyone and being an inclusive person is extremely important to me, but I know that Driscoll 5 I am not perfect. Unfortunately, everyone has their own implicit biases, and the only way to root out these toxic behaviors is to “dismantle what I have set up to keep [others] out,” which is done by picking out the errors in my behavior in order to correct myself for the future ("Chapter 8: Jurisdiction” by Father Greg Boyle— Moreau FYE Week Seven). I am sure to encounter people who disagree with me over certain beliefs, but instead of looking at these people with hate, I will treat them with respect, because everyone has “inherent human dignity” that must be maintained at all times ("Teaching Accompaniment: A Learning Journey Together” by Steve Reifenberg—Moreau FYE Week Nine). Additionally, instead of trying to simply shift people’s views, I will try to get them to understand me so that we can have a more open and thoughtful discussion. Being hateful makes no progress but trying to broaden people’s perspectives can be very impactful ("Passion Isn’t Enough" by Hidden Brain Media—Moreau FYE Week Eleven). In short, there are many ways in which I can use the Moreau course and my mission statement in the next three years at Notre Dame. I will be a welcoming person to everyone, spend as much time as I can with people whose company I enjoy, limit my screen time, and notice both the goodness and badness in the behavior of others in order to shape my own behavior. As long as I remember my goals and values at all times, I believe that I will easily be able to act in ways that live up to the expectations that I have placed upon myself.