Professor Chan
Moreau FYE
28 April 2022

Living a Life for Others

I pursue a life well-lived through my mission statement. I believe very firmly that “everything is going to be ok in the end. If it is not ok, then it is not the end” (“Mission statement” by  - Moreau FYE Week 13). By living this way, I have been able to create a new opportunity for myself, the opportunity to each day become better than the man that went to sleep last night. (After some thought, I decided to change my mission statement to something that is more applicable towards my life.)
I have spent so much time trying to develop as a human. I have struggled, suffered, and grinded my way through all these hardships in my life. One thing that has kept me going is my learning mentality. I believe that if we live with a closed-minded mentality, we will be missing out on so much, because “Good teachers are usually good learners. They are curious, open to new ways of thinking about the world, and enthusiastic about engaging and sharing those insights with others” (“Teaching Accompaniment:A Learning Journey Together” by  Steve Reifenberg - Moreau FYE Week 9). I think that to truly learn though, we need to find answers. My personal problem has been that I  “tend to search for the easiest and most plausible answers.” (“The Right Way to be Introspective” by Tasha Eurich - Moreau FYE Week Six). I think that for me to be a good learner, I need to start looking for different, more expansive answers that will offer much more than the answer to some basic question I am asked. The key to living a well-rounded life is learning, so we need to learn from our hardships and learn from others. I have certainly seen my fair share of hardships, and I firmly believe that these are what make me who I am. I pride myself on pushing past these hardships and not being afraid to work my tail off to beat them. “I have never seen someone so determined to come back and be better than where you left off. You were pushing yourself beyond every limit you had from your physical status to your education, to even your mental health.”  (“Interview” by Brad West - Moreau FYE Week Five).
	This world is full of so much going on, from politics, to wars, to diseases, to just general chaos. This can be very overwhelming at first, but if we take a chance to clarify ourselves, we can start to see this world in new detail. “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 further back and standing still that we can begin to see what the canvas really means.” (“Why we need to slow down our lives” by Pico Iyer - Moreau FYE Week One). The world I have been brought up in, although I have loved it, is not without its flaws. I am from just outside Baltimore, Maryland, and all over the news there have been protests and rally’s regarding the Black Lives Matters movement. Knowing this, I attended several peaceful protests, and did my best to show my support for the community. I saw friendships end, households divide, all over the matter of if people of color should be allowed to live the same way that white people do. “It is urgent that we recognize that human rights are under threat all around the world, including here in the United States”(“I am George Floyd. Except, I can breathe. And I can do something.” by Dean G. Marcus Cole - Moreau FYE week 12).
I think that society and my religion have taught me so much, and have pushed me to become who I am, as we are all products of our environments. “The social teachings of the Catholic Church promote a society founded on justice and love, in which all persons possess inherent dignity as children of God” (“The Spirit of Inclusion at Notre Dame” by Notre Dame - Moreau FYE Week 10). I have seen myself and those around me become products of our environment. I have seen myself become more and more like the people I surround myself with every day. I think that this is in part because of how I try to keep an open mind, and try to expose myself to new things, but it is often difficult to do these things without succumbing to the “echo chamber.” It is super easy to surround ourselves with people who all have the same opinions as us, and share the exact same views and beliefs, but I think that this is not the way to live things. “If a person only focuses on one or two parts of his/her self-concept for a career, that person will eventually hit a wall.”(“Navigating Your Career Journey” by Undergraduate Career Services- Moreau FYE Week Four) Living this way, with people who will not change us and force us to adapt and change for the better is how we become stagnant, and will see so little growth amongst ourselves and each other. There is certainly an extent of adaptation that all of us need to undergo, because without adapting to our environment, we cannot change ourselves, and cannot truly become better than the past versions of ourselves. “We should be intentional about the information that we expose ourselves to, seeking out intelligent people with whom we disagree and attempting to fully understand their arguments.” (“How to Avoid an Echo Chamber” by Dr. Paul Blaschko - Moreau FYE Week 11). I think, although it is difficult, it is the right thing to do by surrounding yourself with people who are going to challenge you on more levels than just physical. “Allowing folks into my jurisdiction requires that I dismantle what I have set up to keep them out.” (“Tattoos on the Heart”, by Fr. Greg Boyle - Moreau FYE Week Seven) I have seen the most growth in myself when I am forced to take down my walls, and allow my environment to change, and have seen some people who I do not agree with at first become some of my closest friends, and become the people who push me past my limits, and make me a better person because of it. 
Throughout my future here at Notre Dame, and even past it, I plan to continue to live out my mission statement. I am very aware that I have made mistakes and will almost certainly make more of them in my future. “Nobody is perfect, but how can we set ourselves on the right path, apart from the rest?” (“Hesburgh Video” by Jerry Barce and Christine O’Malley- Moreau FYE Week Two). By living my mission statement, I can separate myself from the crowd, because I have learned that out of everything, my discipline is what has kept me going and is going to be what sets me apart from the rest of the world. I think that for me, one thing that I have been able to confidently say, is that my discipline and what I do make me happy, which is something that I don’t think very many people can say. This mission statement gives me internal peace and joy, and  “remember, only you can finally say, ‘This is a genuine source of joy in my life!’”(“Three Key Questions” by Fr. Michael Himes - Moreau FYE Week Three). In my life, I plan to follow my mission statement, and spread this to others. I think that the way I have lived through this statement is one that I am very proud of, and I can confidently say that my discipline and motivation through this mission statement have gotten me to where I am today. I will continue to live out my mission statement, and plan to use it to make myself into a better version of myself each and every day.