Week 8: Integration One McClintock 1 Finn McClintock Mr. Retartha Moreau FYE 15 October 2021 Digging into my Beliefs In the past eight weeks at Notre Dame and in the Moreau First Year Experience, I have developed a better understanding of my beliefs as an individual. Personally, just being here at Notre Dame is revealing to me regarding my beliefs. Fittingly, we began the Moreau curriculum talking about vulnerability, and my understanding of vulnerability in joining the Gateway Program. I believe that vulnerability, while a rare feat for me, is a necessary leap. While I fail to put myself in positions of vulnerability in regularity, I understand it to be the same thing that Brené Brown described: being able to do something without any promise of success or failure (“The Power of Vulnerability” by Brené Brown - Moreau FYE Week One). For most of my life, I have desperately avoided anything that offered an uncontrollable or dangerous result. In the past year, I have pushed myself into more vulnerability. I played on my school’s baseball team for the first time since elementary school. At Notre Dame, I have built upon that vulnerability by joining the baseball analytics team. More importantly, I decided to join the Gateway Program over other respected schools where I was guaranteed a spot in the business school. While I have no guaranteed result at Notre Dame or in Mendoza, I am more willing to see out that result. Here at Notre Dame and hopefully as a Mendoza graduate, I believe that my experience will be more than an education in books and numbers. Speaking about the difference between earning résumé success and eulogy success in his TED Talk, David Brook mentioned that one https://youtu.be/X4Qm9cGRub0 https://youtu.be/X4Qm9cGRub0 McClintock 2 has to surrender to something or someone else to gain strength (“Should You Live for Your Resume or Your Eulogy?” by David Brook - Moreau FYE Week Two). This reminded me of Brené Brown’s focus on progress as an individual by putting yourself in uncomfortable positions. While résumé success can be found individually and with only strength or perseverance, eulogy success depends on caring for others and being dedicated to a result not fully in your control. In the Notre Dame community, this eulogy success can be found in many ways. Helping classmates, reaching off campus to aid the greater community, and using my Notre Dame education to better the world are more valuable than the accomplishments of a resumé. Outside of the classroom and service, I believe that Notre Dame excels at another aspect of the individual: faith. While faith is not a religious experience for me, faith in others pushed me to be more willing to meet and accept new people in my first weeks in South Bend. I come from a relatively wealthy area, and I have heard it described as a bubble before. While I failed to see that before, I have come to recognize now how different my background is from many of my fellow domers. In my life, I have been able to have faith in my parents to provide for me and allow me to pursue activities that I desire to discover myself. However, in my time in South Bend, I have heard stories of people turning down schools because of cost or making sacrifices to help out their families financially. Listening to my peers has spurred me to see why and in whom I possess faith. One of the student reflections I read in the third week echoed my sentiment, saying “faith called me more and more to meet everyone around me for who they were” (“Student Reflections on Faith” by Victor - Moreau FYE Week Three). I believe that Notre Dame should be a safe, beneficial community for relationships of all kinds. To foster this community, it is obviously important to learn how to treat people in your own relationships, though recognizing signs of toxicity or violence in others’ can be just as https://youtu.be/MlLWTeApqIM https://youtu.be/MlLWTeApqIM https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YVemqUBaAs5DNBPYm806TyQZr3F0xElP/view McClintock 3 important. This can be easy in some cases—noticing physical or verbal abuse in your presence—but in many toxic relationships, the abuser can mask their actions while creating an unhealthy relationship (“Healthy vs. Unhealthy Relationships” by The Red Flag Campaign - Moreau FYE Week Four). An abuser can control and intimidate their partner from spending time with their friends, effectively preventing outsiders from noticing any issues with the relationship and helping their friend escape it. While I hope and believe that I have not had any friends in an unhealthy relationship here at Notre Dame, this ability of abusers threatens the community we have here if we fail to stand up for our fellow domers. I believe that the purpose of our time at Notre Dame is to gain the tools necessary to aid those around us when we enter the real world. I was lucky enough to hear Carla Harris speak in person at my brother’s graduation this past summer. Harris highlighted the value and principles of a Catholic education, and one idea that stuck with me was her motivation to help anyone at any time she could (“2021 Laetare Medalist Address” by Carla Harris - Moreau FYE Week Five). As Carla Harris’ mother made sacrifices to ensure that she received a Catholic education growing up, I must make sacrifices to aid others in becoming the best individuals they can be. To move my life from just success to significance, I must give all of my skills, influence, and power to others. I have found myself drawn to do this more in my brief time at Notre Dame than in the previous decade of my life. When greeted with questions and requests for help in classes, I have been genuinely willing to help my peers as much as possible. As I continue my Notre Dame experience, I am sure that this trait will proliferate. On my journey in Notre Dame and the real world, I believe that my family and background motivate everything I do. However, I am now on my own, blazing my own path with choices, successes, and failures that shape my future (“Week 6 QQC: Identifying Influences” by https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B93cIKOnINCLS1JpUzZ5Q1JseGs/view?resourcekey=0-CnuZpCgZqMkHDyQAjvac_A https://youtu.be/UjSwjn-SyB4 McClintock 4 Finn McClintock - Moreau FYE Week Six). I carry much more responsibility here at Notre Dame without family in person to guide me. Still, I have years of experience with my family that I believe will set me on the right path even from thousands of miles away. I believe that helping those around us is necessary, regardless of background or cultural differences. As Chimamanda Adichie notes with her college roommate’s assumption that all Africans are one single story of suffering, biases, stereotypes, and generalizations are normal (“Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Adichie - Moreau FYE Week Seven). Reflecting on my own feelings, I absolutely make generalizations of people and groups. That perspective is normal, but I cannot let my biases or stereotypes affect how I actually treat those individuals. Seeking out multiple perspectives and stories allows me to discover new aspects of cultures that I never would have recognized. As I have mentioned, I have already experienced a lot of new backgrounds in my time at Notre Dame, and I am sure that I will see many more. In this brief time at Notre Dame, I have learned a lot about myself. I had not realized all of my beliefs or perspectives on the world. Through the first eight weeks of Moreau, I have met a variety of perspectives and stories that inform my own. This has been a valuable experience that will continue in the remainder of my time in Moreau and at Notre Dame. https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story