Microsoft Word - JPavlockCapstoneIntegration Pavlock 1 Professor Helm Moreau FYE Spring 2022 April 29, 2022 The Next Three Years: All I Have in Store My Mission (Moreau FYE Week 13): lives his life in the pursuit of serving others. His service is not exclusive to picking up litter or fundraising. Jordan dedicates himself to serving in more intangible ways. Every day he wakes up knowing that he is blessed with the ability to be a positive force in the world. He can be a good friend. He can be an outlet for others. He can be a caring son and brother. He can do the small things and the big things to leave people with a positive impact, no matter the size. “Thank You.” “Please.” “Good job!” “Nice Bro!” “Let’s Go!” With phrases like these, he tries to impart positive energy, not only to those who “need it,” but to anyone because everyone deserves it. Jordan especially tries to respect and accompany those who need it the most. The bullied, the hated, and the reviled may have their humanities set aside by many, but Jordan recognizes that no matter who someone is or what they have done, they deserve to be seen and cared for. Jordan realizes that it is not what he has that makes him rich but the relationships that he shares with the people around him. Therefore, he works to foster the strong and meaningful ones in family, school, and everywhere else. He does not need to make lots of money or be famous. His most important goal is to use who he is, his existence, to better the lives of the people around him. Pavlock 2 In line with my mission statement, I plan to achieve many different things in the next three years. After all, I do not have forever to live. Of course, “Everyone dies, their bodies rot, and every face becomes a skull” (Sister Theresa Aletheia Noble – Cited in “Meet the nun who wants you to remember that you will die” by Ruth Graham – Moreau FYE Week 3). First and foremost, I want to continue to serve others by being a good friend, brother, and son. Additionally, I have been meaning to begin doing some quantifiable volunteering but have not been able to during my first year. This summer, I want to find a meaningful organization to volunteer for in the Fall. In line with my mission statement, I want to accompany people who need it, especially those looked down upon by society, such as the homeless or imprisoned. “The beauty of using accompaniment is in the blurring of the lines between us and them, doctor and patient, donor and recipient, expert and novice. Instead, we are partners, walking together, towards a better future” (“Teaching Accompaniment: A Learning Journey Together” by Professor Steve Reifenberg – Moreau FYE Week 9). In accompanying others, I will not only help them. They will also help me. This summer, in addition to finding a group to serve, I want to do some work regarding finding my career direction. Notice that I use the term direction instead of path. As I have learned in Moreau this semester, we do not go to college to prepare for a single job but for various opportunities that will change as life goes on. I have a three-step plan for tackling this personal challenge: “Step 1: Learn About Yourself / Step 2: Study What You Enjoy and Get Involved / Step 3: Explore Careers” (Navigating Your Career Journey - Meruelo Family Center for Career Development – Moreau FYE Week 4). During the summer, I will mainly use my spare time to fulfill the first step, learning about myself. I plan to write for five minutes each day about my interests, hopes, dreams, and what I enjoy. Then, I can review this information to better Pavlock 3 understand myself before coming back in the Fall. If I have any breakthroughs, I will email my advisor right away! Though trying to find a career direction is daunting, I rely on the support of my peers and family to reassure myself that I am doing alright. My mom tells me, “You’re on the right path. You just don’t know which one yet!” (Discernment Conversation Activity – With My Mom – Moreau FYE Week 5). At the end of the day, I am working hard to unlock doors in the future, regardless of whether I know what those doors will be. A massive item on my three-year to-do list is to regain my health. I have had chronic pain all over my legs for the past three years, and I have just recently begun going to physical therapy to try and strengthen my muscles and tendons (it is working!). Especially this summer, I plan to continue building strength so that I can take my life back. I even quit my job in landscaping to give myself the rest I need to find success. That sucked, but it is for the greater good. A quote from Moreau FYE Week 6 inspires me to do what I must. It reads, “I encourage others to focus on what we can do for others or what we can do already instead of what we cannot do or what we do not have yet” (5 Minutes: A Grotto Short Film by Jihoon Kim – Moreau FYE Week 6). All I want is to run, cut firewood, bike, and hike. But I can’t. However, I can do stretches. I can do my strengthening exercises. I can take ice baths. I can and will do what I need to get better, no matter how long it takes. Before I came to Notre Dame, I did not know many people that were different from me. In my small town, nearly everyone was white, and we were all pretty similar. After my first year at Notre Dame, I am happy to say that I have become a much more aware and conscientious person. In Moreau week 10, I learned about white fragility, which I had experienced but could not put into words. As Dr. Robin D’Angelo puts it, “Not often encountering these (racial) Pavlock 4 challenges, we withdraw, defend, cry, argue, minimize, ignore, and in other ways push back to regain our racial position and equilibrium. I term that push back white fragility” (“Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism” by Dr. Robin D’Angelo – Moreau FYE Week 10). I also learned about how we communicate, particularly online. I especially enjoyed learning about bubbles and echo chambers. I learned that “Bubbles become echo chambers when groups give up on tolerating diversity of opinion” (“How to Avoid an Echo Chamber” by Dr. Paul Blaschko – Moreau FYE Week 11). I bring these past experiences up as precursors to what I plan to do in the future. In the next three years, I plan to continue diversifying my perspective by interacting with people who are different from me. As Pope Francis puts it, “The future is, most of all, in the hands of those people who recognize the other as a "you" and themselves as part of an ‘us’ (“Why the only future worth building includes everyone” by Pope Francis – Moreau FYE Week 7). I plan to think critically about my perspective so that I can identify any prejudices I have and address them. The best way for me to become a more inviting person is to challenge who I am and how I think to become better over the next three years and beyond. During my time at Notre Dame, I want to serve a marginalized community as an ally. I particularly enjoyed doing the allyship activity during week 12. I chose to attend “The Clothesline Project,” a display of shirts that had survivors’ stories of rape, sexual assault, or domestic violence written on them (Allyship Activity – The Clothesline Project – Moreau FYE Week 12). I learned more about the problems of abuse and also went to the Grotto to say some special prayers. Next Fall, I want to participate in more allyship activities. Specifically, I want to get more involved with the Gender Relations Center. There, I can learn more about issues of sexual Pavlock 5 discrimination, assault, and abuse and be a steward of awareness and support. I want to participate in and help with some of their events. I can also use who I am to influence my peers to be sensitive and inquiring about these issues. Hopefully, I can inspire my friends to see gender-relations issues in a healthy, activism-oriented way. I want to develop a healthier life-work balance in the next three years. I have become more efficient and less stressed this past year, though I have a long way to go. In particular, I plan to value breaks more in the future. I want to maintain a “one-hour sabbath” each day in which I do no work and only relax. A quote from Moreau FYE Week 1 inspires me to work on my work-life balance. It reads, “One day, Mahatma Gandhi was said to have woken up and told those around him, ‘This is going to be a very busy day. I won’t be able to meditate for an hour.’ His friends were taken aback at this rare break from his discipline. ‘I’ll have to meditate for two,’ he spelled out” (“Why we need to slow down our lives” by Pico Iyer – Moreau FYE Week 1). I, like Gandhi, am realizing that the more work I have, the more I must rest. Not the other way around. I want to deepen my faith during my remaining time at Notre Dame. This year, I did not have much progress in my faith. However, most recently, I have been thinking about going to church as part of a faith community rather than as an individual. Each week I see my same Alumni Hall Dawgs at Mass. Thinking about our togetherness has helped me to feel more faithful. It is essential that we pray together for others and each other. As Eppie Lederer put it in Hesburgh, “Pray for me, Father, and I’ll pray for you. This way we’ll both be covered, no matter what” (Eppie Lederer (Ann Landers) Cited in Hesburgh, 39:40 – Moreau FYE Week 2). In the next three years, I will deepen my faith relationship with my fellow Dawgs by going to Mass and praying together each week. Pavlock 6 There is a lot on my plate for these next three years. I plan to do great things. I want to begin volunteering, become a more active ally, regain my physical health, become a more conscientious person, develop a healthier life-work balance, and deepen my faith. However, even if I do not achieve all these things, I will at least continue to be a light in others’ lives. As I wrote in my eulogy: Every time you interact with someone, you leave a little bit of yourself with them. Even if they don’t remember you, by interacting with them, you have changed their life. I try to be a positive force in the lives of everyone I meet because that way, I am leaving others with a positive bit of myself. If I can make the lives of others better, and they do so for more people, and so on, I never really die, even if no one knows my name (Integration III – Moreau FYE Week 8). Goals aside, I plan to keep up the good work by positively impacting others. That is the core of my mission, today and forever.