S2 Moreau Integration 2 Moreau FYE 29 April 2022 My Map to a Life Well-Lived I, , aim to live my best life as an individual who is kind and inclusive of others. I want everything I do in life to come back to benefitting another person or group of people in some manner. I also want success, fulfillment, growth, close relationships and happiness for myself. I never want to catch myself being selfish and focusing only on me, instead I always want to bring my focus back to helping others. This can be achieved through my job, my relationships, and just the way I go about my everyday life. I believe making a difference in the lives of others will benefit me personally and of course benefit others, making it a win-win situation. The highest life I can achieve is one in which I have a loving family that I am proud of and that I, myself, am an active community member who is actively working to make a difference in the lives of people who are less fortunate. It is important to live your life with a guiding mission statement, principles, and firm beliefs. However, it is not realistic to believe life will pan out perfectly according to your plan. In reality, everyone will face struggles, trials, and tribulations that feel off-putting. “In my faith you learn there’s meaning in suffering but to truly understand that you have to first suffer yourself. It tests your faith but in the end you find strength” (“Hesburgh” film by Jerry Barca and Christine O’Malley - Moreau FYE Week 2). Father Hesburgh offers us these words of wisdom that affirm that though struggles seem like the end of the world at the time, once you have moved past them you are a better and stronger individual. Overcoming obstacles becomes a beneficial tool in the long run. Like Father Hesburgh, Sister Aletheia offers her unique interpretation on suffering. She https://notredame.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=10159379-7eca-4549-8581-ab9500c9ecd9 says, “Suffering and death are facts of life; focusing only on the “bright and shiny” is superficial and inauthentic.” (“Meet the Nun Who Wants You to Remember You Will Die” New York Times - Moreau FYE Week 3). I often find myself thinking positively and pretending my struggles do not actually exist, but this a harmful mindset to adopt. To accurately live by my mission statement, I need to realize it is okay to not be okay sometimes. In order to move forward, you need to deal with your sad or angry emotions. Suppressing them, and only looking at the bright side of life, can ultimately be damaging. If Father Hesburgh and Sister Aletheia’s wise words were not enough, The Congregation of Holy Cross also addresses the topic of life struggles. They proclaim, “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.” (“Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross” Congregation of Holy Cross - Moreau FYE Week 12). This message affirms that everybody, race, gender, ethnicity aside, is the same in our struggles and in our relationships with God. The one thing that unites us is that we have God who will get us through our rough times. He has a divine plan in which everything will work out in the end if you have trust and faith. In order to live my best life, as close to my mission statement as possible, I need to not be scared of life obstacles and instead face them head on, knowing they will help me in the long term. One element of my mission statement that means the most to me is living a fulfilling life full of happiness. I do not ever want to find myself feeling useless, bored, or that I’m not seeking every possible opportunity. It is important to remember, “Life is full of unexpected things. It could come and go anytime” (“Five Minutes” Grotto Network - Moreau FYE Week 6). You must live everyday as if it is your last so you don’t come to the end of your life full of regrets. You https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/14/us/memento-mori-nun.html https://holycrosscongregation.org/holy-cross-resources/constitutions/2-mission/ https://holycrosscongregation.org/holy-cross-resources/constitutions/2-mission/ https://grottonetwork.com/make-an-impact/transform/why-does-god-allow-suffering/?utm_source=moreau&utm_medium=class&utm_campaign=spring_2022 need to take all of the unexpected life events with grace and find some way to make the most of them. If things do not go according to plan, do not fret, and instead turn it into something fruitful. I often fear that my life will be boring or unfulfilling. It turns out that I am not alone in this fear. “The idea of going nowhere is as universal as the law of gravity; that’s why wise souls from every tradition have spoken of it” (“Why we need to slow down our lives” by Pico Iyer - Moreau FYE Week 1). If anything, this fear should motivate us to make sure we don’t go nowhere. In order for me to live the fulfilling life that I want, I need to be active and make concrete plans. You cannot go through life passively, assuming everything will work out the way you want it to. A good recommendation to ensure you live a fulfilling life full of joy and happiness is to first figure out your passions and interests. You may think you know what these are, but until you have real life experiences, you could be wrong. I always thought I was meant to be a doctor until I came to college, realized I actually did not enjoy the pre med route, and then entirely changed my career path. It is helpful to live by the quote, The only way to know more about yourself is to test the waters - just get out and experience life” (“Navigating Your Career Journey” Meruelo Family Center for Career Development - Moreau FYE Week 4). This principle can be applied to jobs, relationships, as well as passions and interests. To live by my mission statement, I first need to user my college years to experiment and find what I love and enjoy. In order to live a well-lived life, you must remember to lean on others and build strong relationships. In college so far, I have found these people in college to be my roommates, dorm friends, and classmates. Even if you fell alone or feel yourself shutting in your feelings you must remember, “That we all need each other, none of us is an island, an autonomous and independent “I,” separated from each other, and we can only build the future by standing together” (“Why the Only Future Worth Building Includes Everyone” Pope Francis - Moreau FYE Week 7). Relying https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-need-a-secular-sabbath/ https://undergradcareers.nd.edu/navigating-your-career-journey---moreau/ https://www.ted.com/talks/his_holiness_pope_francis_why_the_only_future_worth_building_includes_everyone/transcript https://www.ted.com/talks/his_holiness_pope_francis_why_the_only_future_worth_building_includes_everyone/transcript on relationships with others will get you far in life. They are a valuable resource for job connections, friendship, fellowship, and collaboration. It is valuable to sit down and have deep conversations with both people you love and with people who you want to get to know more. This is similar to what we practiced in week 5 of Moreau when we had a conversation with someone from our lives in which we asked them tough questions (“Discerning a Life Well-Lived Discernment Conversation Activity” - Moreau FYE Week 5). Some people who have really leaned into strong relationships with others are the people at Domingo Savio. They were described as, “Though they had few material resources, everyone at Domingo Savio – adults and children – cared for me with incredible grace” (“Teaching Accompaniement” by Steve Reifenberg - Moreau FYE Week 9). Though these people do not have much materially, they have realized they can get all of their meaning and fulfillment from being kind to and connecting deeply with others. We can all learn from them at Notre Dame, being such a competitive environment, and instead lean into helping each other. Forging strong, meaningful, and long lasting relationships are integral to living by my mission statement to bring me life fulfillment. Another important principle to live by is expanding your horizons. Being at Notre Dame, it may feel as if there are so many diverse students, but in actuality we are trapped in a bubble with very similar students for four years. It can be hard to expand this bubble and connect with the outside world while being at Notre Dame. All students must remember, “Most whites live, grow, play, learn, love, work and die primarily in social and geographic racial segregation. Yet, our society does not teach us to see this as a loss” (“Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism” by Dr. Robin DiAngelo - Moreau FYE Week 10). We as a student body and as an American society need to change our mindset to view staying in our comfortable bubble of people as a loss. By not branching out, you are greatly missing out. This same principle can be https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yZ7hqvx-u4EuW2nlK-fRbWFiurQm1mZv_KpoeeiN4So/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yZ7hqvx-u4EuW2nlK-fRbWFiurQm1mZv_KpoeeiN4So/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hZbSdVImfn2hZDqMrdL96dZCNOtHuf6C-lg3sH-Rs30/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bdVnfLDrJUJhd-4UtYb_kfRpcFgOoOeY7O1WT8_d3iw/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bdVnfLDrJUJhd-4UtYb_kfRpcFgOoOeY7O1WT8_d3iw/edit translated to media and online culture as well. We need to be intentional about the information that we expose ourselves to seeking out intelligent people with whom we disagree, attempting to fully understand their arguments” (“How to Avoid an Echo Chamber” by Paul Blaschko - Moreau FYE Week 11). Part of our human nature is that we naturally tend to only seek out opinions and conclusions that agree with our own. In society, with the increase of social media and echo chambers, we have lost the ability to recognize when we are wrong and ultimately change our beliefs. We need to realize “the loss” we are experiencing when we stay within our echo chamber in order to get the most out of life. In order to abide by my mission statement, living a life in order to gain success, fulfillment, growth, close relationships and happiness for myself, I need to make some changes in my current life. First I must begin by not fearing obstacles, but instead leaning into my struggles and seeing them as meaningful and beneficial instead. Next time I get a bad grade on an exam, I need to not complain, but instead make a plan on how to study better for the next one. Next, I need to branch out and not get stuck in a comfortable routine. I must join clubs, take classes that are genuinely of interest to me, and then discern my major and career path based off of that. Additionally, I need to lean into my relationships with others. I already have such close connections with my peers, but I need to focus on making connections with my professors next. There is so much I can learn from them if I first get over my fear of talking to them. Finally, I need to get out of my bubble of people who are similar to me and realize the world is such a big place full of so many opinions, experiences and personal backgrounds. This can be accomplished both at Notre Dame and when I graduate and enter into the “real world.” If I follow all of these goals as I plan to, I will find myself living a life well lived. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaIVxQcqnLs&t=1s