“What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” - Micah 6:8. After almost a year of discovering myself and my values, I have come to the conclusion that this verse from Scripture has become my personal mission statement for my short time at Notre Dame. I want every decision that I make, the big and small, to align with these three tasks that God has given me through this Bible verse. 
Justice is the belief that each person deserves fair treatment because of his inherent human dignity. The best way to bring about justice is to identify those places in our communities where people are not treated justly. The University’s mission statement identifies the institution’s duty to bring justice to the world through its promotion of the common good: “the University seeks to cultivate in its students not only an appreciation for the great achievements of human beings, but also a disciplined sensibility to the poverty, injustice, and oppression that burden the lives of so many. The aim is to create a sense of human solidarity and concern for the common good that will bear fruit as learning becomes service to justice” (“University of Notre Dame Mission Statement” - Moreau FYE Week Thirteen). I have witnessed injustice in my own community in Memphis, Tennessee, where systematic racism has led to segregation and an endless cycle of poverty. Memphians can identify the lines between poverty and affluence by just looking at a map of the city. It is not a coincidence that we associate poverty with blackness and affluence with whiteness. Dr. Robin D’Angelo describes it best- “the whiter our schools and neighborhoods are, the more likely they are to be seen as ‘good’” (“Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism” by Dr. Robin D’Angelo, adapted from HuffPost - Moreau FYE Week Ten). The separation of where we live, work, and go to school is not something that we can just wish away. As Dean G. Marcus Cole says, “One thing that each and every one of us can do is to end the cycle of hate by ending the separation that leads to it. This racial separation and violence will not end until we stop waiting for African-Americans to enter our circles. Each of us needs to get to know people who differ from us. We must all make a conscious decision and effort to expand our circles” (“I am George Floyd. Except, I can breathe. And I can do something.” by Marcus Cole, Dean of Notre Dame Law School - Moreau FYE Week Twelve). My school always made conscious efforts to expand our circle, giving scholarships to lower-income families, raising money for various organizations, and doing what it could for the community of Memphis with the knowledge that education was the means by which one could exit the cycle of poverty. Yet the separation of Memphis could still be seen in our school:
Every morning since the sixth grade I’ve put on my St. Mary's wig and my St. Mary’s clothes, and my St. Mary's voice in preparation for coming to school, and here I'm Hannah… Then at 3:15 when I would get in the car with my grandmother my life would suddenly go from this, to… what most other people would consider the ghetto. As we made our way to our home in Orange Mound, I would flip a switch, and suddenly, I was Miley Stewart.
This was said in the senior speech of someone I went to highschool with. She went on to say, 
My biggest fear for a long time was allowing myself to be Miley here. I was afraid I would be considered the “ghetto girl” or the “girl from the hood,” and I didnt wanna be seen that way… I still do both Hannah and Miley all the time, but it's different now than it was before. Instead of switching back and forth between the different versions of myself I've combined them. And now I’m proud to say that I'm just me… The me where Orange Mound meets Perkins Extended.
 In a just world, there would be no separation between Orange Mound and Perkins Extended, between Binghamton and Chickasaw Gardens, between Frayser and Hein Park. In a just world, no one would have to feel the way that my fellow student did when the lines between neighborhoods were crossed. In a just world, low income families would be able to send their children to the Jubilee schools shut down by the bishop. Even after having left Memphis for college, I still feel called to bring some sort of justice to my city. My math teacher felt this call, having returned from Princeton to his hometown to pursue education, bringing it both to those who can afford it and those who cannot. Working with his program this year allowed me to help one person in her pursuit of education, someone who I learned was completely alone in the world, who had no one else to advise her. I’d like to think that, through the hours I dedicated to her, even though I haven’t fixed the education system of Memphis, I at least helped one person. I intend to continue helping my math teacher with this organization for the next three years to help the education system in the city of Memphis. I also would like to extend my service to the South Bend community as well- perhaps through DePaul Academy. I want the service that I do to be rooted in justice, in the belief that everyone deserves a chance in life to succeed. 
Justice is something that cannot exist without mercy. In Scripture, God’s desire to punish is almost always swayed by His desire to show mercy to those who ask it of Him, whether it be for themselves or for others. When I think of mercy, I think of Sonya from Crime and Punishment, a book about justice and mercy:
“What have you done—what have you done to yourself?” she said in despair, and, jumping up, she flung herself on his neck, threw her arms round him, and held him tightly… “There is no one—no one in the whole world now so unhappy as you!” she cried in a frenzy, not hearing what he said, and she suddenly broke into violent hysterical weeping (Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment).
I have tried to live out this call to be merciful by holding onto the belief that everyone is redeemable, that everyone is capable of good- “timshel,” as people say. The “Hesburgh” film shows the meaning of mercy in the way it describes Father Ted Hesburgh: “What made him such an extraordinary figure was that he really didn’t belong to any side. He belonged to the side of decency, he belonged to the side of a fundamental belief in the redeemability of mankind” (“Hesburgh,” produced by Jerry Barca and Christine O'Malley - Moreau FYE Week Two). Because of mankind’s redeemability, it is our responsibility to show love and forgiveness to those who are difficult to love, to those who are unkind to us. We must turn the other cheek to those who cause us pain, as Saint Monica did for her husband. Her mercy, her forgiveness, is eventually what instills love and kindness into her husband. Saint Augustine writes in his Confessions,
She tried to win him for you, speaking to him of you by her virtues through which you made her beautiful, so that her husband loved, respected and admired her. She bore with his infidelities and never had any quarrel with her husband on this account. For she looked forward to your mercy coming upon him, in hope that, as he came to believe in you, he might become chaste (Confessions, 168). 
At the end when her husband had reached the end of his life in time, she succeeded in gaining him for you. After he was a baptized believer, she had no cause to complain of behaviour which she had tolerated in one not yet a believer (170). 
Therefore, all our efforts at evangelization are realized when we show tenderness and compassion for others. Pope Francis describes tenderness as “the language of the young children, of those who need the other… This is tenderness: being on the same level as the other. God himself descended into Jesus to be on our level… He lowered himself, he lived his entire human existence practicing the real, concrete language of love” (“Why the only future worth building includes everyone” by His Holiness Pope Francis - Moreau FYE Week Seven). Being merciful to others means lowering ourselves to their level, meeting one another in all of our imperfections, and loving one another nevertheless. The belief that everyone is redeemable is also found in bringing justice to an unjust world- we must do so with mercy and compassion. Therefore, accompaniment is necessary to the virtue of mercy. In the words of Professor Steve Reifenberg “...every major religious tradition – including Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, and Christianity –has as a central concern of connecting our lives with those who are downtrodden, the victim, the widow, the orphan, the poor. The admonition is consistent across all traditions: Look beyond your immediate concerns; show compassion and accompany one another” (“Teaching Accompaniment: A Learning Journey Together by Professor Steve Reifenberg - Moreau FYE Week Nine). The virtue of mercy has an element of losing oneself- of treating others in a way that our inherent selfishness would cause us to be uninclined to treat them. At times we can be reluctant to give the benefit of the doubt to those with whom we disagree. We push out those who don’t think and look and act like us from our circles. In the words of Dr. Paul Blaschko, “Bubbles become echo chambers when groups give up on tolerating diversity of opinion” (“How to Avoid an Echo Chamber” by Dr. Paul Blaschko, ThinkND - Moreau FYE Week Eleven). Mercy calls us not to try to change the minds of others but to listen to them. It calls us to believe that good hearts are capable of holding hateful beliefs, and that in seeing others as good, in tolerating different opinions, in letting the outcast join the table, we can bring unity to a broken world. During my time here, I want to make a conscious effort to see the redeemability of every person. I want to try to never talk badly about anyone who has hurt me in my own perception of things, and instead pray for the people who have hurt me in the past and for those who will hurt me in the future. I want to be someone that others know will forgive them, allowing their character to develop instead of being held back by someone’s perception of them because of their past. Finally, I want to be someone who shows mercy to herself, allowing myself to move on from my mistakes and move forward with the belief in redemption. 
	The first two virtues of my mission statement are encapsulated by my third and final goal: to walk humbly with my God. Justice and mercy come from Him alone, not from myself and my own goodness. Therefore, I must live out these virtues with humility, living not for myself and my own glory but to glorify Him through the good that I do. I aspire to live my life with God at the center, and have all that I do be inspired by Him alone. In order to walk with God, I must first establish a personal relationship with Him. To do this, I am going to try to have a better prayer life. Prayer is something that I usually struggle with due to my short attention span and inability to be still. However, I would like to try to get into a routine of prayer and build it into my day. As Pico Iyer says, “To me, the point of sitting still is that it helps you see through the very idea of pushing forward; indeed, it strips you of yourself, as of a coat of armor, by leading you into a place where you’re defined by something larger” ("Why we need to slow down our lives" by Pico Iyer, TED - Moreau FYE Week One). I have encountered many places that have made me feel defined by something larger than myself- at the Grotto, at Log Chapel Mass, at Sunday Vespers. I hope to continue using these means of prayer while they are available to me at Notre Dame. By having a personal relationship with God through prayer, I believe that I will be able to show Him to and see Him in others through the connections I have with them. Another part of walking humbly with God is to recognize that my life is a journey towards Heaven. I want to try to make “memento mori” a phrase that I live by: “Remembering death keeps us awake, focused, and ready for whatever might happen — both the excruciatingly difficult and the breathtakingly beautiful” ("Meet the nun who wants you to remember that you will die" by Ruth Graham, NY Times - Moreau FYE Week Three). Remembering the brevity of life is something that will make me appreciate it more, while also being aware that I must not become too attached to the things of this world, both the good and the bad. It will also help me to realize that what happens in this life, the good that I do, the joys and sufferings I experience, will bear fruit in the next life. Walking with God means offering all of the things I experience in life to Him. This was extremely prevalent to me during Holy Week this year on Good Friday. Someone I had gone to school with had died that Monday, and I had been struggling to reconcile her death with a loving Father, and I couldn’t stop thinking of her poor grieving mother. However, experiencing Jesus’s Passion made me think more deeply about suffering: “But at the same time, the purpose of my life is not simply about overcoming suffering. Suffering is part of our lives. It is always there, but it is about how to respond to suffering with God. And that’s the reason how I was able to go through them and still trust in God and live with joy and gratitude” ("5 Minutes" by Aria Swarr, Grotto - Moreau FYE Week Six). This year on Good Friday, I finally fully connected Christ’s suffering to ours. I thought about how Jesus willingly died with her, that he was right next to them suffering with her as she died. So I guess she wasn’t really alone. I’d been telling myself that she wasn't alone before that day, that God was watching over her. But before God was always just someone in Heaven watching her die and not stopping it from happening. But it’s more than that- Christ lay down next to her as she died, holding her in His arms and suffering with her. And that brings me some comfort. She wasn’t alone- I hope she got some peace knowing that in their last few minutes on Earth. Or at least I hope she knows that now. And her family isn’t alone either- right next to her grieving mother is Mary, grieving with her. I think about how Mary is in utter agony- her bitter weeping and absolute despair as she holds the lifeless body of the baby she had once held in her arms so long ago. I think about how she feels as they put him in the tomb, never to be seen again. And I think about how she feels seeing her Son again when he is Resurrected. And I think about her joining Him in Heaven, and how they will never be separated again. And I think about how all graves will be opened on the last day. That girl who died too young can run back to her mother’s loving arms, and that they’ll never lose each other again. And that brings me peace. The suffering will end. The grief will end. We were never meant to live lives without them. But our God and His mother experienced suffering and grief with us- so even now we’re not alone, He walks with us always. 
	In my third integration assignment, I wrote “I am currently living a life that I will want to remember when I look back at it” (Integration Three Assignment: Write your own eulogy. - Moreau FYE Week Eight). Through doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with my God, I hope to make my life one that is well-lived, on which I will want to remember when I reflect upon my short time at Notre Dame. I want to live life fully, focusing not only on maximizing my grades but at creating memories. “The only way to know more about yourself is to test the waters - just get out and experience life!” (“Navigating Your Career Journey” by Meruelo Family Center for Career Development - Moreau FYE Week Four). I want to know myself better through the life I choose to live and the people I form relationships with. Looking back at my conversation in Week 5, I remember “I was told that I can be too hard on myself- that I take grades too seriously and I don’t let myself make mistakes” ( "Week Five Discernment Conversation Activity" - Moreau FYE Week Five). Experiencing life is allowing myself to make mistakes and knowing that I will still be loved. Even if I don’t perfectly live up to the mission I have created for myself, I believe that trying my best to follow it will allow me to have a well-lived life.