Victoria Gordon-Brown Moreau Capstone Integration My mission, should I choose to accept. My mission is to spread joy. I am happiest when others are happy because of something I have done or said. In spreading joy to others, I can inspire others to spread joy too. Even something as simple as holding a door open for a stranger could encourage them to do the same for someone else. In a collective in which everyone is spreading joy, we build each other up and form strong, sustainable communities. I’m at my best when I have people around me for whom I have reciprocated love. I’m at my worst when I’m thinking only of myself. By surrounding myself with people for whom I care deeply, it becomes easier to remind myself to reflect on whether I’m looking out for others enough. For example, when I’m with my friends and one mentions that they have lots of work, I make an effort to check up on them and provide them with support. I want to be someone who consistently makes people’s lives better. I hope that in bettering myself in my personal life, career, and other endeavors, I can inspire others to do the same; this can be as simple as asking myself what I’ve done to make someone else’s day better. My greatest talents are my ability to communicate with others and my deep, sincere love of it. Connecting with others brings me the greatest sense of fulfillment. This is because I believe the most important things in life are people. Someday I want to reflect and feel satisfied that I have made a positive impact and given more than I have taken by forming meaningful connections through sharing emotions and experiences. So how will this animate my life for the next three years? Firstly, I will make sure to make time for reflection and recovery. Gandhi’s comment: “This is going to be a very busy day. I won’t be able to meditate for an hour...I’ll have to meditate for two,” as outlined by Pico Iyer1 is very important, especially for college students. Moving from one class to the next, then one extra-curricular to the next, looking after ourselves can sometimes be difficult. So I will try not push myself too much when I’m tired, but instead take a nap or meditate. This means that when I do essential tasks, I’ll focus and do them at a higher quality rather than struggling through them with my eyes half closed. Over the next three years, I will use inspirational figures to encourage me to create a better world. For example, Qing Zhu, one of the 2021 Domer Dozen Honorees, who works with ‘leading Chinese companies and government departments on solutions to urgent global issues such as biodiversity protection and climate change.’2 Qing shows that, with good ideas, passion and commitment to a project, it is possible to make recognisable impacts. In a similar way, I hope to be impactful by working with the ND community, especially those in positions of 1 (Moreau FYE Week 1: Why we need to slow down our lives; Pico Iyer) 2 (Moreau FYE Week 2: the Notre Dame Alumni Association’s “Domer Dozen.”) Victoria Gordon-Brown Moreau Capstone Integration responsibility, to spread information and resources about sexual health, consent and bodily autonomy. In doing so, I hope our community will be more empowered to make safer, more responsible decisions. Over the next three years, I want to find my own joy in college by not getting unnecessarily stressed. As Sister Aletheia said: ‘Suffering and death are facts of life.’3 Without being reminded of this indisputable fact– we are all going to die – it’s easy to focus on small things. Getting tied up in tiny details leads to negativity, when instead we should acknowledge frustration, then move on. Without this acknowledgement, we would lose sight of the bigger picture: the things that we genuinely find important. Inspired by this message, I will make the most of my time here and do things that will bring me joy, like speaking Italian. At ND, I appreciate the flexibility that I have given myself when it comes to choosing study and career paths. Like in the ‘Navigating your career journey’4 page, reflecting upon the things I enjoy, the skills I have, and my values led me to Biochemistry and Italian. Because of this, I am studying abroad in Italy this Summer. However, I will continue to reflect to ensure that my career path remains in alignment with my values, goals and the things that bring me joy. As recognized by my brother,5 I value happiness through connections. He said that I value ‘the people I connect with, staying active and healthy and caring for others.’ At ND, I will dedicate my time to these to ensure I have the best college experience possible. I will maintain current relationships, build new ones, continue rowing, and stay active in supporting the causes I believe in. For example, this past semester, I handed out free condoms on Earth Day to promote environmental awareness and sexual health; I hope to plan a larger event to share information with more people. Throughout my time at ND, I will embrace obstacles as opportunities for learning and growth. I will do this by facing difficult situations with a positive attitude. In a Grotto Network video, a man talks about his snowboarding accident and the struggles he faced as a result. ‘I was always so focused on what I could not do.’6 Later, he talked about how he was inspired by his love of God to make the most of what he could do, rather than focusing on what he’d lost and what he couldn’t do. This highlights the impact that a positive mindset can have on someone’s outlook: he went from suicidal to enjoying life and helping others enjoy theirs. I hope to do the same for my friends by leading by example on how to deal with stress. Over the next three years, I want to appreciate the people that support me. As the Pope said: ‘life flows through our relations with others.’7 It’s important to remind ourselves of this. Sometimes, when I’m tired and struggling, I underappreciate those who look out for me and 3 (Moreau FYE Week 3: The NYT: Meet the Nun Who Wants You to Remember You Will Die) 4 (Moreau FYE Week 4: Undergraduate Careers: Navigating Your Career Journey) 5 (Moreau FYE Week 5: Week 5 Discernment Conversation Activity; Conversation with my brother) 6 (Moreau FYE Week 6: Grotto Network: Why Does God Allow Suffering) 7 (Moreau FYE Week 7: Why the only future worth building includes everyone; His Holiness Pope Francis, TED Conferences) Victoria Gordon-Brown Moreau Capstone Integration whose interactions I rely on for joy and purpose; by valuing those I care about, I can build them up and make them feel valued. Another way I will care for others is by accompanying them through their college struggles. As Steve Reifenberg said: ‘the beauty of using accompaniment is in the blurring of the lines between us and them.’8 By empathizing and making others’ struggles my own, I can better connect with and support them. For example, helping a friend study for a test or staying in with someone who doesn’t feel like going out. Moreover, I will continue to improve the way I act to ensure I am welcoming to others, so they feel completely accepted. It is my and everyone’s duty to make people feel accepted, so they have a safe environment to work towards their own goals. By accepting people, it’s possible to build productive communities by reducing negative interactions. For example, there are many ‘religious iconography that depicts God, Adam and Eve, and other key figures as white.’9 Our society’s prioritisation of whiteness is hostile towards people of colour. By accommodating all people, regardless of their race or gender etc, I can make sure that, even if they are facing negative treatment elsewhere, I can be a safe space for them to feel seen and appreciated. Over the next three years I hope to grow in wisdom. In ‘seeking out intelligent people with whom we disagree and attempting to fully understand their arguments,’10 I won’t avoid different views, but instead engage in discussions to learn from them. This pushes me to be open minded and reconsider perspectives that I may have previously dismissed. From this, I can develop a well-rounded perspective. For example, I will try to engage with the ‘Right to life’ club and consider why it is they believe what they do, so as not to blindly disagree. To ensure I carry out my mission, I will look for ways to actively help out. As Dean Cole said: ‘each one of us can choose to finally end hate.’11 In following my mission of spreading joy, I am choosing to end hate by removing myself as a sponsor of the problem. Instead, I will be a cultivator of positivity, and as my favorite saying says, I will ‘make my bubble of the world a better place.’12 8 (Moreau FYE Week 9: Teaching Accompaniment: A Learning Journey Together; Professor Steve Reifenberg) 9 (Moreau FYE Week 10: Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism; Dr Robin D’Angelo, adapted from HuffPost) 10 (Moreau FYE Week 11: How to Avoid an Echo Chamber; Dr Paul Blaschko) 11 (Moreau FYE Week 12: Dean G. Marcus Cole: I am George Floyd...) 12 Suzanne Gordon-Brown, aka my mum