“The Place We Go From” As I entered my college career here at Notre Dame I came in with my own set of beliefs and ideals and perspectives on the world. However, I can safely say that even just after a semester my eyes have been opened to so many perspectives, and so many issues in our community. The community not just in the greater world but even at my own town, or even slight ones at Notre Dame. After all, nowhere is perfect, but what makes Notre Dame stand out among all else is the constant dedication to change for the better. Over the course of this semester, I was able to ask myself many questions and been introduced to new ideas and people. I’ve come up with a couple of questions to seek truth for and one is how can I inspire and work for change regarding racism and discrimination and where should I start? Or what constitutes a fulfilling life? Or in what ways is community built up? And finally: In a world with suffering and pain and sorrow all around us how can we keep faith in God and his infinite love for creation? These questions among others have been responsible for making some issues more nuanced for me or more clear or even more important. One of the first questions I investigated this semester was how I could inspire work for change regarding racism. This question carries a lot of weight but if there is one fact, I’ve learned at Notre Dame (don’t worry Professor Taylor I’ve learned several) is that we take the questions that weigh heavily head on. A Notre Dame student is not afraid to get to the heart of a matter and to take on the weight of the world. We go here to serve after all. However, I think that this question can be boiled down to love. Now in no way is this subject or matter able to be reduced to a four-letter word but this base emotion, lies at the heart of every human. Jesus calls each of us to love our neighbor and he doesn’t discern between race, sexuality, gender, or creed. The solution of love paired with more practical matters such as policy and protection is the clarity needed to this solution. We need to change the hate in people’s hearts to begin to eliminate the racism plaguing this nation. The only way to inspire work for this change is to be the change. Father Jenkins said it best in his Wesley Theological Seminary Commencement Address when he said, “The commitment to address the most urgent, most strategic challenge in the country today — the challenge of reducing hatred and promoting love” (https://president.nd.edu/homilies-writings-addresses/wesley-theological-seminary- commencement/ by Father Jenkins – Moreau FYE Week 10). We are all called to love especially Notre Dame students as they go out from this great institution into the world. By acting out this love to all, as Jesus did, we can be the change needed in this world especially for racism and discrimination. It will not occur overnight, but the world could not hurt with a little more love. Another question I sought to answer was what constitutes a fulfilling life. This is a question that I fear may have just become more nuanced and complicated in my search for truth. However, this answer is of the utmost importance to me. If I can not live a fulfilling life than how can I be satisfied when I pass on. Despite not having all the answers I can begin to tackle this question using what Notre Dame has taught me, as well as my life. In the summers I work for a rental company where I load and unload big trucks as I drive and deliver across the Chicagoland area. We set up tents, tables, chairs, and even bounce houses. In my time working here, I’ve often gone to the west and souths sides of Chicago which are very impoverished. I have my fair share of crazy stories and sometimes even scary ones but what I’ve drawn from this experience is deeper. The poverty, the struggle that I was faced with everyday hit me in my soul. A fulfilling life is not one where you are merely successful and draw up in yourself away from all others. A fulfilling life is getting up when you are knocked down and using any bit of power or wealth to bring up others with you. However, we can not shape ourselves to other’s visions. https://president.nd.edu/homilies-writings-addresses/wesley-theological-seminary-commencement/ https://president.nd.edu/homilies-writings-addresses/wesley-theological-seminary-commencement/ The Grotto article from week 9 articulates this, “You can’t live your life according to the expectations of others. When you do, you aren’t living your own life — you’re living someone else’s life” (https://grottonetwork.com/navigate-life/health-and-wellness/letting-go-of- expectations/?utm_source=fall_2021&utm_medium=class&utm_id=moreau by Julia Hogan – Moreau FYE Week 9). By stepping outside other’s visions of us, and beginning to embrace a life of service then we can go to bed everyday knowing we helped another human being, and in so doing bring a smile to our own faces. This much has been made clear to me by my Notre Dame journey so far. As the world erupts all around us in conflict and strife it is safe to question how we can build up our communities, as well as keeping faith in God during seemingly doomed times. Both questions I sought to answer in my first semester at Notre Dame but again I fear I don’t have all the answers. As I go out from Notre Dame, I know I will have a much better grasp of the issues and questions that incite my imagination. Here at Notre Dame community is evident everywhere you turn. Whether it is getting an enthusiastic hello from Father Pete on his bike, or becoming very close with your hall members, or having gone to the Grotto, community is everywhere. Community is key to Notre Dame and the culture we promote here. To build good community we look no further than love again. Community everywhere is susceptible to attacks of hatred like racism. Yet as Professor Agustin Fuentes states, “Race and racism are malleable” (https://notredame.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=d14a0472-9c0e-44ea- bd39-53c67ee1d436 by Professor Agustin Fuentes – Moreau FYE Week 11). With love at our base and in our hearts, just like at Notre Dame we can begin to build up a community of inclusion and diversity. Furthermore, in the world where media brings all sorts of distressing and depressing news right to the tips of our fingers it is hard to keep hope and faith. Anyone’s faith in https://grottonetwork.com/navigate-life/health-and-wellness/letting-go-of-expectations/?utm_source=fall_2021&utm_medium=class&utm_id=moreau https://grottonetwork.com/navigate-life/health-and-wellness/letting-go-of-expectations/?utm_source=fall_2021&utm_medium=class&utm_id=moreau https://notredame.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=d14a0472-9c0e-44ea-bd39-53c67ee1d436 https://notredame.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=d14a0472-9c0e-44ea-bd39-53c67ee1d436 God could be shaken and I don’t think I’m the only catholic who might have felt this way. Especially in a time where science advances so rapidly with little regard for ethics in some cases. Father James B. King assures us that God, “Would be just as insistent that Christians place themselves in the midst of the debate about how to use the things we produce not only for material or personal gain but ethically and spiritually, for the advancement of all people” (https://canvas.nd.edu/courses/28222/files/189390/download?download_frd=1 by Father James B. King – Moreau FYE Week 12). We are called to keep faith in God, and yet work hard to make sure that everyone else keeps faith too and doesn’t go too far. In no way is the task easy, but good always prevails. My time here at Notre Dame has taught me many key lessons and given me clarity on my perspectives and the issues in this world. It is not always easy to look in the mirror and know I was blind to things, but I am able to do it today with a smile. A smile because I know that with my new vision I can go out and make change. After all, Notre Dame is not the place you come to but the place you go from. My class and I will go out into the world serving and helping others at every turn. I know this with a certainty. A guarantee of Notre Dame. https://canvas.nd.edu/courses/28222/files/189390/download?download_frd=1 What has grown or decreased in importance as a result of my Notre Dame journey thus far? What was previously “black and white” that is now more ambiguous, nuanced, or complicated? What was once ambiguous or vague that now holds greater clarity?