Moreau Final Paper Professor Nguyen Moreau Paper 14 October, 2021 My Journey at the University of Notre Dame I believe that I grow by reaching out of my comfort zone and doing that which may seem awkward. In high school, I hadn’t done that many clubs or activities that made me uncomfortable, and I didn’t like talking to new people because I was introverted and it made me feel really awkward. However, coming into college, I tried to change and reach out of my comfort zone to do some different things so that I could grow as a person. For example, I was not planning to do rocketry, as I thought that there would be a lot of weird people in the club. Once, I got to Notre Dame, I told myself why not so, I went to the first meeting to just try it out and see how it was. I was surprised by how nice the people were in the club, and I have enjoyed participating in the ACS section of the club so far. This way of being uncomfortable and vulnerable is apparent in the Week 1 Video, “The Power of Vulnerability” by Brené Brown. Brené Brown talks a lot about how powerful being vulnerable is when she says “They believed that which made them vulnerable, made them beautiful.” This shows that those who are vulnerable are happiest because they believed that their vulnearbilities made them special and worthy of connection. Vulnerability helps us to embrace the real person that we are and grow to become and even better and happy person. This is why I think vulnerability and stepping outside of my comfort zone is so important; it allows me to come to terms with the person that I truly am and grow outside of myself to become a happier person. This also relates to being fearful and not letting fear hold me back from growth. In Week 5, in Carla Harris’ 2021 Laetare Medalist Address, she says “Fear has no place in your success equation.” This pertains to growth, as I have always been fearful of stepping outside of my bounds and my comfort zone, thus preventing me from growing much. I must step past this fear of being rejected and fear of what if and be vulnerable so that I can develop. I believe that I also grow by shedding toxic relationships. In high school, I had a lot of toxic relationships dragging me down and preventing me from thriving as a person. Entering college, I was able to shed all of these relationships, as I will probably never see those people again. Since then, I think that I have been able to grow a lot and go outside of my comfort zone because I have not had any bad relationships holding me back. In the Week 4 reading, “5 Signs You’re in a Toxic Relationship” by Olivia Taylor, Taylor says “A good, healthy friendship is one where two people are mutually growing and on a path toward becoming better people, but every so often, we find ourselves making an effort with a person we probably shouldn’t.” This definitely happened in high school, where I found that in some of my relationships I was trying too hard and getting nothing back and the people just weren’t good for me to be around. This inhibited my growth and made me not want to reach out to others and form new friendships. So, it is imperative for me in college to not form toxic relationships, and, if a relationship happens to become toxic, I should shed the relationship so that it doesn’t keep me from continuing to grow. I believe that I grow by also keeping myself from falling into a single story. In order to broaden my horizons and my perspective of the world and other people, I have to avoid the single story that everyone falls into and instead form my own opinions. In Week 7, in her video “Danger of a Single Story” Chimamanda Adichie mentions “[t]hat when we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.” This shows that in order to grow and “regain a kind of paradise”, I have to let go of the idea that there ever was a single story and form my own story through my own interactions and experiences. I think that this is especially important for my growth at the University of Notre Dame, as a lot of people fall into that single story that everyone tells and people just make that their story. Instead, I should experience whatever it is myself before making any judgments or assumptions about anyone or anything at Notre Dame. I believe that I pursue truth by being curious and asking questions. From the time I was a little kid, I have always asked questions about things I do not understand or want to know more about and have always been curious about everything. I think I have pursued truth this way, especially on campus. An extremely important example of this from my time on campus was when I switched majors the first week. Now, this pursuance of truth was not looking for facts or evidence, but the truth of what my future could be. I dove deep into the curriculum for both physics and engineering and decided that the truth about myself was that I liked solving problems and building things than I did thinking about how the world works. This central personality trait of curiosity was shown in the survey that we took Week 2. Curiosity was by far my number one trait from the survey, which we took in order to discover our character strengths. This survey was important in solidifying something that I already knew about myself. I also think that my curiosity and my pursuance of truth through this curiosity will be important these next coming years as I attempt to discern what I think the truth about the world, people, and God, as well as my major and future job. I believe that I am searching for God. In grade school, I really believed in God and went to Mass all of the time and prayed a lot of the time as well. However, once I got into high school, I started growing farther and farther away from God as I saw a lot of the evil things going on in the world and could not reconcile God being the epitome of good with all of this evil. However, during this first semester, I started going to Mass again, and it has been my faith in the people around me that brought me to have faith in God. In Week 3, Professor Fagerberg talked about the importance of faith in our relationship with God and in our relationships with others. He said that faith allows us to see outside ourselves and enables us to see God in everything, especially in other people. I think faith is the most crucial thing in my search for God. I haven’t totally rediscovered God yet, but I am on my journey there and I think that it will be my faith and seeing the good in others that will get me there to fully believing in God again. I believe that I am most centered at home with my family. Being away from my brother and mom and dad made me realize how much I miss and love them. Since I only live ten minutes away, I have gone to visit one time and left feeling very energized and full again. This showed me how much I should appreciate the time that I am able to spend with them, as after college I won’t see them much at all. My “Where I am From” poem from Week 6 reminded me of these things and how important my family is to me. I feel most happy, or centered, when I am at home with my family. Each of the lines that I wrote in my poem was centered around being at home and feeling at home, and in writing this I realized how happy I am with them and how much a part of me they are. Works Cited “The Power of Vulnerability” by Brené Brown - Moreau FYE Week One “VIA Character Strengths Survey” by Adult Surveys - Moreau FYE Week Two https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Qm9cGRub0&feature=youtu.be https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/account/register?registerPageType=popup https://grottonetwork.com/keep-the-faith/belief/faith-brings-light-to-dark-world/?utm_source=fal l_2021&utm_medium=class&utm_id=moreau by Professor David Fagerberg - Moreau FYE Week Three "5 Signs You’re in a Toxic Friendship" by Olivia Taylor - Moreau FYE Week Four “2021 Laetare Medalist Address” by Carla Harris - Moreau FYE Week Five "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyon - Moreau FYE Week Six "Danger of a Single Story" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Moreau FYE Week Seven https://grottonetwork.com/keep-the-faith/belief/faith-brings-light-to-dark-world/?utm_source=fall_2021&utm_medium=class&utm_id=moreau https://grottonetwork.com/keep-the-faith/belief/faith-brings-light-to-dark-world/?utm_source=fall_2021&utm_medium=class&utm_id=moreau https://grottonetwork.com/navigate-life/relationships/signs-of-toxic-friendships/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjSwjn-SyB4 http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story