Schrage - Capstone Integration Life is full of opportunities and it is up to each individual to decide which opportunities we take and what we do with it. Despite differing opportunities and ideals, “the goal of anyone’s life is to have a life well-lived. However, that means very different things depending on the person” (“Personal Mission Statement” by Daniel Schrage - Moreau FYE Week Thirteen). For myself, a life well-lived involves a fulfilling career, a loving family, and helping others reach their version of a life well-lived. I want to find a career path that allows me to pursue my passions while helping to advance society. For myself, “I have always believed that when I find something I am truly passionate about, I jump fully into it and get very excited about it” (“Week Five QQC” by Daniel Schrage - Moreau FYE Week Five). This is why I want to find a career where I am fully engaged and can enjoy my work every day. In addition, I want a loving family including a wife and kids. I want to be able to pass down everything I have learned and achieved to my family to create a successful and loving family for the future. Finally, I believe it is very important to help others achieve their goals because some people are not blessed with the same opportunities as everyone else. People are often left out due to the social class they are born in, but “we are trying to create one nation. It could very possibly be that we are verging through our institutions towards two societies, one black and one white, and that wouldn’t be America I don’t think” (“Hesburgh” by Father Hesburgh - Moreau FYE Week Two). As Father Hesburgh said, we need to support each other in order to create one united society. Throughout my next 3 years at Notre Dame, I hope to pursue my dreams for a life well-lived even though it may be difficult. The most obvious thing to figure out in college is my career choice, which I have not figured out quite yet. However, I understand that “career satisfaction/success depends in part on how well a person can identify and implement his/her career self-concept, which is comprised of your values, interests, personality, and skills” (“Navigating Your Career Journey” by Notre Dame - Moreau FYE Week Four). I need to take my personal values and beliefs and test them through different courses and experiences at Notre Dame to figure out what it is I want to do with my life. In my pursuit of this, I hope the University can help me better understand the bigger picture of my life because “it’s easy to feel as if we’re standing two inches away from a huge canvas that’s noisy and crowded and changing with every microsecond. It’s only by stepping farther back and standing still that we can begin to see what that canvas (which is our life) really means, and to take in the larger picture” (“We Need to Slow Down Our Lives” by Pico Iyer - Moreau FYE Week One). I believe that involving myself with the Notre Dame community and finding role models within it will help me gain a better perspective on my life and what I want to do with it. I believe that no one achieves anything in this world alone. That is why I will work to surround myself with people with similar life goals to myself because “we all need each other, none of us is an island, an autonomous and independent ‘I,’ separated from the other, and we can only build the future by standing together, including everyone” (“Why the Only Future Worth Building Includes Everyone” by Pope Francis - Moreau FYE Week Seven). It can be easy to feel alone in this world, but I need to understand that there are always people to help, which further explains my desire to surround myself with people that support my life goals. I will try to find these people through Gateway, my major, clubs, or any other way I can get to know people. I have talked a lot about surrounding myself with people that will support me, but the more important part of it is that I surround myself with open-minded people who are not going to create a toxic environment around me. “As should be clear, echo chambers are more dangerous than bubbles partly because of their ability to lock us into certain world views, but the two are closely related. Bubbles become echo chambers when groups give up on tolerating diversity of opinion” (“How to Avoid an Echo Chamber” by Paul Blaschko - Moreau FYE Week Eleven). I want to include myself in a group that supports myself while also listening to others and what they have to say. Choosing my friends in college is very important because if I choose poorly, I could become encapsulated in a bubble that does not allow anyone to grow, including myself. The natural human instinct is to help others, but sometimes we must learn that sometimes we need to accept help and advice as well. For example, Steve Reifenberg said about his mission trip, “even though I had landed on their doorstep with plans to be “their helper,” they accompanied me, and during those first two years and the many intervening ones, I think I have learned – and am still learning– to accompany them as well” (“Teaching Accompaniment: A Learning Journey Together” by Steve Reifenberg - Moreau FYE Week Nine). While I have been talking a lot about friends I surround myself with, family is truly more important than that. I want to spend my time in college finding and nurturing a relationship for the future to create a healthy, loving family. Family is a deeper bond than friendship and I hope to be able to take a step forward towards starting my own family while at college. This does not mean that I want to have a family in college. However, I want to figure out what is important to me in a girlfriend or wife and find someone who makes me happy, which could be the start of a family in the future. I think family is very important because “as disciples of Jesus we stand side by side with all people. Like them we are burdened by the same struggles and beset by the same weaknesses; like them we are made new by the same Lord’s love; like them we hope for a world where justice and love prevail” (“Mission” by Congregation of Holy Cross - Moreau FYE Week Twelve). I also want to become a better member of the community, which is why I want to involve myself in activities on campus at Notre Dame to help widen my world view. There are many problems plaguing this world and I want to help in the fight against them. “We experience a challenge to our racial worldview as a challenge to our very identities as good, moral people. It also challenges our sense of rightful place in the hierarchy. Thus, we perceive any attempt to connect us to the system of racism as a very unsettling and unfair moral offense” (“Why it’s so Hard to Talk to White People About Racism” by Robin DiAngelo - Moreau FYE Week Ten). The most important part of my college experience is that I actually experience life. I want to use these next 3 years to grow as a person. I can only do that if I live in the moment instead of thinking and stressing about the big moments in my life. “We can spend endless amounts of time in self-reflection but emerge with no more self-insight than when we started” (“The Right Way to Be Introspective” by Tasha Eurich - Moreau FYE Week Six). Self -reflection is not always what we want to do. It is important to be self-aware, but also to avoid overthinking our lives. That is why I want to live my life the way Ruth Graham said it, which is that “my life is going to end, and I have a limited amount of time. We naturally tend to think of our lives as kind of continuing and continuing” (“Meet the Nun Who Wants You to Remember You Will Die” by Ruth Graham - Moreau FYE Week Three). I want to live my life in the moment while I am at college. I need to avoid being bogged down by my own thoughts and allow myself to grow and learn who I am. Throughout my next 3 years at college, I want to surround myself with good people who help me grow as a person. I also want to use these opportunities to grow myself as a member of the community as well as a member of my own family. Most importantly, however, I want to live my life the way that makes me the happiest, which I can only do by avoiding overthinking and choosing to live in the moment.