Integration Three Matthew DiPaolo 3/3/2022 Prof. Taylor Moreau FYE - Integration Three Living the Good Life Instead of focusing on how he died, I feel like we should focus on how Matthew Warren DiPaolo lived. A native of Los Angeles, he decided that he wanted to move out of LA for college and followed in his father’s footsteps to attend the University of Notre Dame. I met him while at Notre Dame, because our dorm buildings were neighbors. His energy stayed the same of all the years of knowing him. Throughout his life, he decided that instead of focusing on the future, to live in the moment. He would always calm down his friends, reassuring them that no matter what they were worried about, it did not matter as much as they thought it would. Although he was always active on social media and liked to connect with others to keep them updated, when with friends, he always tried to make sure that no one was on their phone and to stay present in the time. “Researchers in the new field of interruption science have found that 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) I found this quote and decided that it perfectly described his philosophy in life. Another fun story about Matthew is that he was not scared of anything, and would instead channel that energy into excitement. He would typically always volunteer https://canvas.nd.edu/courses/41005/modules/items/144072 first for labs, new amusement park rides, new restaurants, and almost anything else you could think of. “Remembering death keeps us awake, focused, and ready for whatever might happen” (“Meet the Nun who wants you to remember that you will die” by Ruth Graham - Moreau FYE Week Three) Knowing that eventually one day he would leave this earth as he so sadly did, he made sure that instead of getting down about the small things, he could live his life to the fullest regardless of what others thought. Although Matthew may have passed recently, he was still a survivor in many ways. Along with being survived by his husband and kids, he is a survivor of mental health issues. “We can spend endless amounts of time in self-reflection but emerge with no more self-insight than when we started.” (Text: “The Right Way to be Introspective (Yes, There’s a Wrong Way)” (Tasha Eurich, TED Conferences by Tasha Eurich - Moreau FYE Week Six) Unfortunately he was a perfect exemplar of this quote. Surviving a shooting at only nine years old, he developed a very negative view of the world early on. This affected him throughout his life ranging through different mental illnesses. Growing up in a Catholic environment in school and at home, he stayed practicing until his death using it as his escape. However, since he was gay, this escape did not always want him. Going through 16 years of Catholic schooling taught him that being himself was wrong and to repress and forget those feelings. How could something he loved so much be so cruel to him? Instead of leading a fight against the church, everytime he received hate it made him grow into a stronger person. He used these struggles to grow closer to others, being an advocate for equality. Using his education as an American Studies and Gender Studies major, he decided to use this education to fight for others in the court of law. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/14/us/memento-mori-nun.html https://canvas.nd.edu/courses/41005/modules/items/144118 https://canvas.nd.edu/courses/41005/modules/items/144118 My favorite story about Matthew was when we would go out together because he was always willing to do anything and everything. From football game day tailgates to late night parties in the dead of winter. I still remember the days of running from West Quad all the way to North Quad in 10 degrees and a blizzard just so we could dance and be the most fun people everywhere we went. Spontaneous outings to random restaurants and running from Zumba class to a show across campus, he always wanted to experience it all. As I bring this speech to a close we have to remember to remember how to live instead of worrying about how we die. “A single individual is enough for hope to exist, and that individual can be you. And then there will be another ‘you,’ and another ‘you,’ and it turns into an ‘us.’” (“Why the only future worth building includes everyone” by Pope Francis - Moreau FYE Week 7) I believe that Matthew can be that you, and the rest of us celebrating him here today can become the us. His life’s work was to make everyone feel a sense of belonging and for everyone to become united with each other in a world of one. Let us live this out for him as he rests in peace. https://canvas.nd.edu/courses/41005/modules/items/144132 https://canvas.nd.edu/courses/41005/modules/items/144132