Microsoft Word - Document3


 
 

Encountering Obstacles Furthers Growth 
 
 This semester I have encountered new people, new ideas, and new ways of thinking. I 

was exposed to a much more diverse atmosphere than I was used to back home in Pensacola, 

Florida. All the new aspects of college life also caused me to encounter struggles, obstacles, and 

even loneliness at some points. However, with these new challenges that I was faced with I 

learned from mistakes that I had made, and I also became a better person after overcoming 

each obstacle and struggle. 

 1: Encountering change. “I had been looking forward to college for years…. This was not 

the payoff I expected” (“Advice from a Formerly Lonely College Student” by Emery Bergmann – 

Moreau FYE Week 9). This quote perfectly sums up my initial emotions and thoughts when I 

first arrived at Notre Dame. I have always been told that college is the best four years of life, so 

I had high hopes and expectations. I was looking forward to being able to go anywhere I wanted 

without having to tell my parents, go to parties every weekend, and, most importantly, make 

best friends for life. However, a little over one week in and I already hated business school and 

transferred to FTT. Even in FTT I still was not very happy, so I dropped out to pursue YouTube 

and signed the papers making it official. My mom called the provost office to get them to 

accept me back in if I changed my mind, and my brother convinced me to stay in college. All 

those events occurred in the first few weeks of the semester starting. Now it is the end of the 

semester and, to be honest, I still feel the same way. My plan is to finish this year at Notre 

Dame and then transfer to South Alabama, record for YouTube with my Florida friends, and get 

an apartment with two of my best friends from back home, one of which is also transferring 



from his current school to South Alabama. However, after talking to all my old friends I realized 

that most of them are not happy where they are. I have been told that almost nobody enjoys 

their first year of college, that it takes to time to make new friends, and that change is 

important to expand thinking. I do believe all of that is true, but I also believe that if I am not 

truly happy, I should do something about it to make me happy. So, while my response of 

transferring to be with old friends may seem as if I am running away, I really am doing it to 

further my YouTube channel, something that I am passionate about, and increase my 

enjoyment of life. 

 2: Encountering Diversity. “A country whose citizens treat one another with scorn does 

not have a bright future” (“Wesley Theological Seminary 2012 Commencement Address” by Fr. 

John Jenkins, C.S.C. – Moreau FYE Week 10). At Notre Dame I have encountered diversity like I 

have never seen before. On a regular basis I will hear students speaking in Chinese and Spanish, 

and every single class that I am in has at least one student from a foreign country. I will admit 

that I can be very judgmental of others based on their political views, religion, nationality, 

etcetera, but my mindset has truly changed this semester at college. In Moreau I could not 

avoid conversing with just about everybody in the class since it was so small, and our seats 

changed every week. One student that I met is Pedro, and he is also in Alumni Hall with me. He 

is from Brazil, and I never thought that me and him would become friends. This is because I 

really do not know anything about Brazil, nor have I never met somebody born in Brazil. 

However, he is one of my go-to friends to play a game of pool with and he always swipes up 

with support on my Instagram stories that promote my YouTube videos. I learned that people 

from different countries really are not that much different than Americans. Yes, they have 



unique accents and different cultures, but their hobbies that they enjoy doing are mostly in line 

with what Americans, like me, enjoy doing as well. They are just normal college-aged students 

who enjoy what just about all other college-aged students enjoy, despite their differing 

nationalities, 

 3: Encountering Loneliness. “I need other people for comfort, encouragement, and 

support, and for criticism, challenge, and collaboration (“Thirteen Ways of Looking at 

Community” by Parker J. Palmer – Moreau FYE Week 11). In high school I was always social and 

had a lot of friends. In fact, I was much more friend oriented than family oriented and spent 

almost every single day with friends. Then I went to college and had to start the friend-making 

process over again. However, I had this bias that most Notre Dame kids are nerds who only care 

about school and academics. I came to realize that they do care about their schoolwork, of 

course, but it is not their life to focus on school. My roommate Jake, who helps me film, is my 

best friend at Notre Dame right now, and all my other friends here are mainly people I play pool 

with. As much as I hate to say it, I still really do not have any friends at Notre Dame. Yes, I know 

a bunch of people who I am friendly with and who I hang out with, but I still do not have my 

group of friends that we do everything together with like I had in high school. While my bias 

about everybody being 100 percent academically focused was not true, I still have not found a 

single person that I truly click with. I feel as if I really do not belong here because I really do not 

care about school, but I just care about enjoying life and having fun. I know that everybody 

must do things they do not enjoy to get somewhere that they will enjoy, but it is hard to find 

something you enjoy when 1) I do not enjoy my environment and 2) I do not have friends to 

enjoy things with. I have never been depressed or so lonely to the point where I literally have 



nobody, but I will find myself watching Netflix alone on a Saturday night rather than being with 

friends. Recently, I have been working on putting myself out in the open more, and I have 

already made three good friends by just reaching out: one helps me with my YouTube videos 

and the other two play pool with me a lot. I even looked up other YouTubers from Notre Dame 

and messaged one I found, which in turn caused us to get dinner together and gave me 

somebody new to talk to that is going after similar goals as me. 

 4: Encountering challenges. “Striving for completeness means spending one’s life as a 

citizen of this world imitating the person of Christ as the gateway to citizenship in heaven.” 

(“Holy Cross and Christian Education” by Fr. James B. King – Moreau FYE Week 12). These past 

few weeks I have really been trying to become a better person with better habits. Since college 

I have not went as hard as usual in the gym and I also rarely went to mass or prayed. However, 

with everything I am going through in terms of feeling like I do not fit in and with my YouTube 

channel I am really trying to fix how I live my life. I recently got in trouble for my YouTube 

videos, and I was forced to remove all videos on my channel filmed on Notre Dame Campus. I 

also got banned from filming on Notre Campus. This outcome really hurt me, because I had so 

many ideas to film and I had a whole plan of the new direction of my content, but then it all 

collapsed. Jake, my main filmer, is no longer filming for me so I had to reach out to new people 

for help. However, despite me finding new people, filming off campus is incredibly hard, 

especially considering I do not have a car. The saddest part for me is that I was going to stay at 

Notre Dame all four years, or at least until I got 100K subscribers on YouTube. Now, I feel 

somewhat forced to transfer because there is no realistic way for me to film at Notre Dame 

anymore. I still am going to work hard on YouTube off campus because I am a strong believer in 



not giving up when pressured to give up, and I will still aim to post a video every Tuesday, 

despite my filming restrictions. 

 At the end of the semester, I have encountered struggles and challenges, but in the end, 

I encountered hope. I first had to encounter change for myself to change, diversity for me to 

expand my mind and my perception of others, loneliness to encourage me to meet new friends, 

and challenges for me to become more creative and innovative in my thinking. With every 

obstacle I became a better person, more prepared for future obstacles. I have hope for the 

future in terms of making new friends, my YouTube channel, and even my grades, since they 

are decent. Overall, I will always encounter both good and bad things in my life, but with every 

encounter comes an opportunity to learn and grow.