Microsoft Word - Integration 3.docx Driscoll 1 Integration Three Moreau FYS 4 March 2022 Wishing to be Defined by my Values When I die, I want to be remembered as someone who put my loved ones before myself, and who always showed my appreciation for the people that mean the most to me. I highly value quality time with those that I love, and I feel that I am at my happiest when I am surrounded by friends and family, even if we are not doing anything in particular; just enjoying each other’s presence is satisfying enough for me. I am glad that my friends currently see the joy I get from being around other people, and I hope to continue to exemplify my values in my daily actions ("Week Five Discernment Activity"—Moreau FYE Week Five). Being authentic and intentional in my actions in important to me and I want others to remember that I stick to my values when making decisions. I want to be remembered as a joyful person when I die. I want others to remember somebody with positive energy that always brightened their day. Joy greatly improves one’s life; it is “central, it comes from within, and it’s a genuine rightness of how one lives one’s life” ("Three Key Questions" by Fr. Michael Himes—Moreau FYE Week Three). This is why I not only want to live a joyful life, but I also aim to flood other people’s lives with joy so they can have as many good experiences as possible. For me, joy comes from my love towards others and their reciprocated love towards me, which is why I fill my life through socializing with people I love. I want to find other people’s source of joy and use this knowledge to make the lives of those I love as enjoyable as possible. Driscoll 2 A life well-lived for me is one that is filled with faith and diverse experiences. Of course, diverse experiences will include many struggles that must be overcome. However, these obstacles will not hinder joy in my life if I maintain my faith through them. I would like to ensure that no matter what triumphs or hardships I face, my faith stays strong throughout them all. Father Hesburgh is a great example of this; he did not always have an easy life by any means, but he always kept his relationship with God. Even through something as horrific as the death of someone he was close to, he was able to survive because “it was because of his faith that he was a man of hope” ("Hesburgh" by Jerry Barca and Christine O’Malley—Moreau FYE Week Two). After his death, Father Hesburgh was acclaimed by many for having the ability to be faithful all his life. I wish to follow a similar path, which will not only bring hope and strength to my life, but also joy and growth. Sometimes, rather than constantly appreciating all the blessings I have in my life, I “focus on the things we do not have,” like many other people do ("5 Minutes" by Aria Swarr—Moreau FYE Week Six). Although I am getting better at recognizing the good and not only the bad, I want to utilize my faithfulness to keep improving at being more optimistic. It can be easy for me to become overwhelmed by a busy schedule with many decisions to make. Society puts pressure on individuals that they should always be pursuing something, and they should know what their passions are and what they want to do next. One thing that particularly stresses me out is discerning a career path. Even though I have a declared major and minor, I have no idea what I want to do for a career, which can be overwhelming because “there seems to be this commonly held belief in our society that a major equals a certain career path” ("Navigation Your Career Journey" by Meruelo Family Center for Career Development— Moreau FYE Week Four). However, as a part of a life well-lived, I believe that it is significant to focus on the bigger picture. I strive to remain hopeful and trust that everything will work out in Driscoll 3 the end; this will allow me to direct my energy towards having memorable experiences rather than concerning myself with trivial stressors that will only distract me. Furthermore, I feel that technology contributes to my stress and blocks me from doing other tasks because I get so wrapped up in looking at my phone or computer that I am not able to progress in my work. I want to live more in the present, rather than staring at a screen scrolling through social media sites. This quote from a week one article rings true in myself and many of my peers: “it takes an average of twenty-five minutes to recover from a phone call. Yet such interruptions come every eleven minutes—which means we’re never caught up with our lives” ("Why We Need to Slow Down our Lives" by Pico Iyer—Moreau FYE Week One). We were raised knowing how to use technology, which means that it has always been an integral part of our lives. I want to undo this addiction. In the future, I hope to put my phone away more often and spend time with others without checking my phone after it has buzzed or worry about taking an excessive number of photos when I am doing something exciting. If I adopt these new habits, I will be able to live much more in the moment, which will allow me to work towards a life well-lived. I want my life to be defined by people and places rather than wasting hours away looking at a small screen. Another attribute that I believe is part of the definition of a life well-lived is equality. Equality and fair judgment are some of my foremost values that I consider when examining every single motivation and action in my life. Sometimes I catch myself treating or thinking of someone in an unfair way for no reason. Society teaches people to judge others at first glance or by certain attributes they have, and it is very hard to “dismantle what I have to set up to keep them out,” but it is necessary to create a better and more just society ("Chapter 8: Jurisdiction" by Fr. Greg Boyle—Moreau FYE Week Seven). Similar to technology, this is a result of society that is produced in many people, and therefore it takes significant work and intention to be able Driscoll 4 to reverse it, but it is certainly possible. In recent years, I have found myself questioning what my motivations are behind every decision I make, which has allowed me to exhibit equality in my daily life. I will continue to live out this habit of treating everyone fairly and not judging them immediately or based on a certain characteristic, and I hope I can encourage others to do the same. In short, I personally believe that a life well-lived is full of people who bring joy, love, faith, living in the moment, and diversifying experiences as much as humanly possible. I want to use my relationships and faith to bring joy to the lives of myself and others and do as much as I can in the limited years I have before I die. With every action, I will think about the ways in which I hope to be remembered to ensure that I am demonstrating my values in the choices I make.