FYS Integration Three Assignment: My Eulogy Bordallo 1 Theo Helm FYS 10101-83 March 4, 2022 Integration Three Assignment Thoughts From Your Older and Wiser Self To: A Fellow Life Liver From: The Product of Your Life Thus Far (aka Your Future Self) Dear Colleen, You are already living a life well lived, but you can do better… When I first got to Notre Dame in the fall, I had many new and exciting experiences. Through these experiences, and the discussion of them in respect to various text and video resources in my first year morau class, I came to understand a lot of things about myself, my experiences, and my thoughts on how to live a life well lived. I think that living a life well lived is not conclusive and bounded by certain expectations. I think that it has a lot more to do with expectations that one personally puts on themselves. Therefore, as long as one is living in strive of their own personal goals, regardless of the relationship-work life balance, it is a life well lived. Especially after the quarantine-induced self reflection period that you went through in highschool, I think you have been able to understand what you want in life, at least on a short term scale. You worked towards these goals actively, got into one of your top choice schools, and grew relationships with others for the better. However, as nothing can ever be perfect, I think you can do better. Therefore, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts on living a life well lived. One thing that I am sure you know by now is that you are a hard worker and you have a lot of expectations for yourself. This is one way I know you are trying to live a life well lived. However, I think one of the most important things to consider that is easy to overlook is finding a Bordallo 2 tangible and realistic path to achieve your goals. This will help you center your expectations, rather than be overwhelmed by the potential thing you should or could be doing at a given moment. This is something I struggled with during the semester, thinking that I am not doing enough while also being overwhelmed by the work I am already doing. The text from week 1 of morau class expressed this same feeling of not doing enough by saying, “In the age of movement and connection, space, as Marx had it in another context, has been annihilated by time; we feel as though we can make contact with almost anywhere at any moment” (“The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere” by Pico Iyer - Moreau FYE Week One). You can have a lot of goals, aspirations, and expectations for yourself, but I think it is important to be realistic in your goals and understand how you can truly achieve them. The class went on to discuss something similar in week 2 by watching the Hesburgh Film. In the film Father Hesburg said, “You cannot put all these inhibitions around a person and then say why don't you try harder. Well of course we can all do better if we worked harder but it’s like holding a man underwater and saying why don’t you swim” (“Hesburgh: The Documentary” by Jerry Barca - Moreau FYE Week Two). Therefore, by making a clear plan for what you want to achieve, you can more directly and satisfyingly achieve your goals, helping you live a life well lived. Another experience I had was during the week of my first biology exam. I spent much of the stress and studying, neglecting others and myself. Looking back on this, I realize that I could have still studied and worked to achieve my academic goals, while also being kind to myself. One text from week 3 of class was very helpful with this revelation as it says, “The concept is to intentionally think about your own death every day, as a means of appreciating the present and focusing on the future” (“Meet the Nun Who Wants You to Remember You Will Die” by Ruth Graham - Moreau FYE Week Three). When Ruth Graham wrote that, I think she meant that at Bordallo 3 the end of the day, we have to spend the most time with ourselves. Therefore the most important relationship we can foster and the desires that are most important to satisfy are those of myself. I further took this point away in week 7 of class, when we reflected on what His Holiness Pope Francis said in a speech, “Power is like drinking gin on an empty stomach… you lose your balance and you will end up hurting yourself and those around you. … Through humility and concrete love, on the other hand, power – the highest, the strongest one – becomes a service, a force for good” (“Why the Only Future Worth Building Includes Everyone” by Pope Francis - Moreau FYE Week Seven). Self love and self satisfaction is key. Therefore, I have learned that it is very important to give yourself a break every once in a while and find a good balance of working towards your goals, and living life to the fullest in the present. Similar to this, it is also easy to get lost in your own thoughts about your goals for the future that the other aspects of discerning a major can be lost. For example, like D.A. Luzzo said in a text from week 4, “Planning your career is much like planning for a trip… After you leave ND, some of the details (like choosing a major) will change, but the core elements remain the same: learn about yourself, explore careers, reflect, & take action” (“Around we go: the developmental process of making career decisions” by D.A. Luzzo and L.E. Severy - Moreau FYE Week Four). I think that students often think of their day to day life as mere stepping stones to their ultimate academic or career oriented goals. However, if students instead consider how they can live a life well-live presently, then they could work to understand how they can develop themselves constantly and find what they truly want to do with their life, instead of what they want to ultimately accomplish. It is understandably difficult to in some way look at yourself from another perspective and try to understand and live your life with your past, present, and future in mind at the same Bordallo 4 time. One source that helped me understand how I should approach this problem is the video that we watched for week 6 of class, which says, “When the hardships or unexpected things happen to us, we often focus on the things that we do not have” (“5 Minutes” Jihoon Kim - Moreau FYE Week Six). I think that the quote shows that it is easiest to be overwhelmed and completely consumed by singular perspectives. Whether it be by only focusing on a past event that you don't want repeated, or a current event’s instantaneous effect, or a future goal that you must achieve, looking at life with only one perspective inmind is often detrimental to the other aspects of your life. Therefore, try to take a step back, look at the bigger picture, and find a balance between working for the benefit of your past, present, and future self. One aspect of doing this has to do with the relationships that you share with others. Another major event that occurred within the semester that contributed greatly to my development is the process of discerning my major. This is a topic that was thoroughly discussed during class, especially week 5 when we had to have conversations with a trusted friend or family member for enlightenment on how others see you and what that reveals to us about our chosen majors or career paths. For example, I had my conversation with my friend Melody, who you have yet to meet, who gave helpful insight on how she sees me deal with everyday situations that support my choices in study and career. I wrote of this conversation in my QQC for that week, which says, “her experience gave the descriptions very tangible and specific things to attach itself to. There, this portion of the conversation stretched my awareness of myself, as well as confirmed something I knew about myself to another level” (“Discernment Conversation Activity Reflection” by - Moreau FYE Week Five). This portion of my QQC illustrates the impact of using relationships in a beneficial way. Melody helped me understand myself by describing my actions and thoughts in her perspective. Therefore, another aspect of Bordallo 5 living a life well lived is by placing trust in others to help you understand yourself. It is easy to get lost in your own thoughts and perspectives of yourself, so grounding yourself with the help of others is important to living a life well lived. Therefore, although I think that living a life well lived is very subjective and you have been able to somewhat achieve a life well lived thus far, I think that being conscious of what you are doing and what you will do is important. Simply thinking about what you should do to live a life well lived shows that you are already on the right path. So keep going, keep your head up, and live a life well lived. Sincerely, You from the Future Bordallo 6 Works Cited Iyer, Pico, and Einarsd́óttir Eydís. The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere. TED Books/Simon & Schuster, 2014. “The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere” by Pico Iyer - Moreau FYE Week One '99, Author: Jerry Barca, et al. “Hesburgh: The Documentary: University of Notre Dame.” Notre Dame Magazine, 10 Apr. 2019, https://magazine.nd.edu/stories/hesburgh-the-documentary/. “Hesburgh: The Documentary” by Jerry Barca - Moreau FYE Week Two Graham, Ruth. “Meet the Nun Who Wants You to Remember You Will Die.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 May 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/14/us/memento-mori-nun.html. “Meet the Nun Who Wants You to Remember You Will Die” by Ruth Graham - Moreau FYE Week Three Luzzo, D.A., & Severy, L.E. (2009). Around we go: the developmental process of making career decisions. In Making career decisions that count: a practical guide (3rd ed.) (pp. 1-12). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc. https://undergradcareers.nd.edu/navigating-your-career-journey---moreau/ “Around we go: the developmental process of making career decisions” by D.A. Luzzo and L.E. Severy - Moreau FYE Week Four Bordallo 7 “Discernment Conversation Activity Reflection” by - Moreau FYE Week Five Kim, Jihoon. “5 Minutes.” Grotto Network, 10 Nov. 2021, https://grottonetwork.com/make-an-impact/transform/why-does-god-allow-suffering/. “5 Minutes” Jihoon Kim - Moreau FYE Week Six Francis, Pope. “Why the Only Future Worth Building Includes Everyone.” His Holiness Pope Francis: Why the Only Future Worth Building Includes Everyone | TED Talk, https://www.ted.com/talks/his_holiness_pope_francis_why_the_only_future_worth_build ing_includes_everyone/transcript. “Why the Only Future Worth Building Includes Everyone” by Pope Francis - Moreau FYE Week Seven https://www.ted.com/talks/his_holiness_pope_francis_why_the_only_future_worth_build