Final Integration Pawelek 1 Whittington Moreau 23 April 2022 Path to a Life Well-Lived I believe it is increasingly difficult to articulate one specific way to live a life well-lived. Just these past few months of my life have been telling of the type of person I want to be in life. I think it is exceedingly important to discern this. I believe that my time here at Notre Dame thus far has guided me into not only finding how I want to live a life well-lived, but also by becoming the person I want to be, who is living in the path towards a life well-lived. There are various values and beliefs that have already been shaped into finding out my true morals and how that will impact the rest of my life. Although I know I am far from being perfect, and my goals will continue to change and develop through my years, at this university and outside of it, I do believe I am heading in the right direction to find myself. In Moreau FYE Week 13 of Moreau we were to write our personal mission statement. I think this was a very helpful and useful activity to conduct. I started my time here wanting to graduate and fulfill my purpose of wanting to be a woman for others. I want to use my gifts and talents to benefit all of those surrounding me. I think this has immensely grown within my first year here at Notre Dame. After being exposed to all of the service and community activities presented to all students here, I am overwhelmed by how many opportunities there are to serve those around me. I have gotten involved in various activities in hopes of finding my passion. One exercise that helped me discern this mission was integration one; writing my eulogy. This exposed me to how I want to live and how I want to be remembered by those who follow me. Pawelek 2 Furthermore, it should be noted that this will come in several different lights. There will be struggles and sufferings, but it is from those that we grow and alter our behaviors to become stronger. I must also grow in wisdom by keeping an open mind, to the point where I soak up as much information from those around me as possible. And I will also act with courage, as it takes a courageous, or brave, person to positively impact the world. Ultimately, writing my mission statement was a great way to get me a concrete path to follow for my next three years here and the following years after on my life journey. One way in which this mission statement first went underway was in the practicing of self-reflection during Moreau FYE Week 1. Part of this week's learning and growing was beginning with self reflection. It was a self reflection on the semester past, and me as an individual person. I think this really helped me begin to discern what I want my life to look like in these next three years, because in order to know where I am going, I must know where I have been. Questions like “Which experience was most meaningful to you last semester?” ( “Self-Reflection” Moreau FYE Week 1) allow me to not only reflect, but take a second look at what I have done that made me truly happy, or left an impact on me, and will therefore catalyst to what I want to do in the future. In a similar sense, during Moreau FYE Week 2, after watching the Hesburgh film, we were given a model of someone who lived a life well-lived, and seeing how it was so important and prioritized to him made it seem more essential to us. This was accurately represented when the film stated “In my faith you learn there’s meaning in suffering but to truly understand that you have to first suffer yourself. It tests your faith but in the end you find strength” (24.56 Hesburgh Moreau FYE Week 2). With growth comes suffering, but my philosophy is that the suffering will only expedite the growth and build a good basis of character within yourself. I Pawelek 3 think this is well reflected in the quote, because to fall back on your faith when you are suffering is necessary too. I know that for myself it is important to focus on God and pray when I am suffering, and somehow this helps calm and center my life. I also believe that suffering makes the good parts of life so much sweeter. This is a perfect sentiment when thinking of how to live a life well-lived. There is no such thing as a perfect life, but leaning on God and acting in the best way for humanity is one way in which I can grow into my beliefs of a good life. One way in which I think we can go about this was by a realization I came to during Moreau FYE Week 3. Living every moment as if it is my last. In this week’s section, we learned about a nun who celebrated death. Although there is a stigma around death, it is people like this nun who emphasize the importance of recognizing death and the inevitability of death who raise awareness. Ultimately, I think this will positively impact the earth. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about death is “If this was your last day on Earth how would you live it?” I think if we lived with that in mind the majority of people would change their ways to ways of kindness and appreciation of everything around them. Furthermore, we could change our lives for the better by utilizing the three key questions and creating joy for ourselves and for others. Ultimately, the thought of death makes me strive for living in the very present and making every moment matter, which, to me, is an essential part of life, and is incorporated in my mission statement. During Moreau FYE Week 4, we examined what we can do after our next 3 years here, and I think this is a very important sentiment in order to think about what we must do in these next 3 years to prepare ourselves for the future. In this week we were exposed to various articles and activities that aid in helping steer us to our interests. In one instance it is stated “There are many details and decisions to make and it requires a lot of exploration and research”(“Navigating Pawelek 4 Your Career Journey” - Moreau FYE Week 4). I really like this quote, because it puts into perspective how time consuming it is to put together a career for yourself. I would definitely say that after I read this statement I had a feeling in my stomach that bunched up. I know these next four years will form the rest of my life, and thinking about that is alarming to me. However with finishing the article I saw how it is a step by step process, and not all at once. I think this relates to many things in my life, meaning that if I am feeling overwhelmed in a situation I can take a step back and have a moment to gather my thoughts and carry on. I think this is an essential life skill that will prepare me for the years to come after leaving Notre Dame, and I want to spread awareness about the importance of this process, just like in this week's activities. In a similar sense, to help the students prepare for the future that is upon us, we must be open to explore the resources that are presented to us here at Notre Dame, which we saw in Moreau FYE Week 5. Here we were introduced to IrishCompass which is an amazing resource to connect to past alumni of Notre Dame and see the journey they took and network with them. Ultimately, this is a very cool and interesting platform that is available to students because it just shows the connection between all past and present and future Notre Dame students. I am excited to one day be on this site helping the current students at Notre Dame at that time. Helping others is a necessary part of life in my opinion, and I am thrilled that IrishCompass fits perfectly into this plan. Self-reflection is an essential element of witnessing the importance of yourself, which in turn provides each one of us with a mission statement for ourselves. This process is accurately represented in Moreau FYE Week 6. I think it was well put that “I’ve come to believe that the qualities most critical for success in today’s world — including emotional intelligence, empathy, influence, persuasion, communication and collaboration — all stem from self-awareness” (“The Pawelek 5 Right Way to be Introspective” - Moreau FYE Week 6). I think this is a very important quote. I think especially in today’s day and age, it is very common to get caught up in technology. We get wrapped into elements of social media and we lose ourselves. There are many times that I catch myself getting into a negative place with myself and my self-worth because of what I see on social media. This quote is very important to me because it shows how we must take a moment to reflect on ourselves in everyday life. Our lives are, undoubtedly, very busy, but we must carve out time to reflect on us and the world around us, and this will ultimately benefit my future, which perfectly coincides with my mission statement to reflect on my actions in order to make me the best person I can be. I think one crucial question we must ask ourselves while we are attempting to discern how to live a life well-lived is what can we do for others? I think this was very clear within Moreau FYE Week 7. I think our world today has gotten increasingly selfish. We constantly ask “What’s in it for me? Or something along the lines of “How does this benefit me?” Personally, I think this is the wrong way to go about life. One way that I think is important to growing friendships and relationships and connections in my life is through serving others. This can be in a very small, and seemingly insignificant way, but to others it may be grand. We must restore and build connections with all types of people. Inclusion is part of God’s mission and therefore my mission to live a life well-lived, and I want to live this out fully. In Moreau FYE Week 8, we were to write our own eulogy, and although a weird topic to think about because it encapsulated writing what would be at our funeral, it made me realize how I want to be remembered after I am gone. It put life into perspective and helped me come to the realization that I have personal goals for my future and what I want to do. This truly helped discern a life well-lived to me. Pawelek 6 In my life personally, I think it is insanely difficult for me to accept help from those around me, but this is an important part of growing into the human I want to be, as seen in Moreau FYE Week 9. The ideology of accompaniment was a common theme throughout this week. I learned that not only do we need a person to accompany us, but to be there for someone else. I know what it feels like to be lonely, and it is very isolating, and I do not wish that on anyone. I want to leave a positive impact on the Earth and the people that surround me daily. This is also included in my personal mission statement because I never want someone to feel alone or like they have no one beside them. It was in Moreau FYE Week 10 that I fully understood just how essential it is to be active in community and how much of a difference it can potentially make in the world. I think one of the biggest problems of exclusion in our society and a reason why it is so prevalent is because people choose to neglect it. I feel like everyone can be guilty of this, including myself. I would never do this intentionally, but sometimes I get nervous and scared that I would say the wrong thing or something offensive to someone, but not on purpose. In a similar sense, we must accept ourselves in order to love the others around us. To bring this week’s readings back to a life well-lived, I think we must make an effort of inclusion, and I think I must delve into this myself. Challenging ourselves to get outside of our comfort zones is also increasingly important, it could be something as simple as challenging someone else’s ideas, like we saw in Moreau FYE Week 11. “Surrounding ourselves with people who agree with us, we’re losing our sense of how someone might reasonably disagree” (ThinkND Video - Moreau FYE Week 11). I think this quote poses a very interesting ideology. Personally, I know that I am at fault for surrounding myself with people who think just like me, or share the same views on things like politics or just general opinions, because it is comfortable. I consider myself a very non-confrontational person. Pawelek 7 I never want to start a fight or contribute to a fight of any kind. I think this is why I like to surround myself with people with similar views as me, because it lessens the chance of a fight or disagreement. However, I do see how this is a problem and I think I shouldn’t be afraid to disagree with others, because that is how people and relationships grow, and we learned in a previous week of Moreau that relationships enhance a life, which creates a life well-lived. Being a steward of change is necessary as seen in Moreau FYE Week 12. It was inspiring to read what Dean G. Marcus Cole does. He is a definite steward for change reading that made me want to follow and be someone like that. I included in my mission statement helping those who are vulnerable and I think this is essential to live a life well-lived, because this is what God intended His children to do. All in all, I believe I have a good basis of learning and understanding of how to live a life well-lived and I can confidently stand by my mission statement and live it out to the fullest in the upcoming years of my life.