Integration 2 Brown 1 Moreau FYE 28 April 2022 Penny Hnatusko Personal Mission Statement Helping My Community My Personal Mission Statement is to make others around me smile while trying to achieve high personal goals I set for myself. With this I can change the world around me and make sure I am living the best possible life I can. I think living a great life is very hard to do. Are you supposed to only think about yourself and be a complete narcissist? Are you only supposed to think about others and fall into a huge spiral where you can't dig yourself out of. Well this year with the help of a relationship I was able to figure this out for myself. I was able to figure out that by helping the person or people that I care about the most that I am really helping myself out. There are definitely going to be highs and lows but the total great output and the huge benefit that one benefits from a relationship will be undoubtedly important. Looking from an outside perspective we can do this better by looking at our entire life and seeing what we want to accomplish. Through Pico Iyers Ted Talk we see that “It’s only by stepping farther back and standing still that we can begin to see what that canvas (Why We Need to Slow Down Our Lives by Pico Iyer - Moreau FYE Week One). I think that taking a moment to pause and re-evaluate life is so important. Sometimes we can really be in the ditches and can only be able to pull ourselves out when we take a minute to look at the situation we are in.Through this we are able to grow and benefit from the larger picture. Notre Dame tries to do this with their mission statement and their ability as a large private university that has a large voice in the academic community. Part of their mission statement is “The University prides itself Brown 2 on being an environment of teaching and learning that fosters the development in its students of those disciplined habits of mind, body, and spirit that characterize educated, skilled, and free human beings” (University of Notre Dame Mission Statement - Moreau FYE Week 13). Through this and my relationship over this semester I have seen myself become more inclusive to others and be more careful. I think this touches aon something that we need to do as humans more often. Many times we are very hateful for no reason whatsoever. This is very important to carry here at my legacy at Notre Dame and the rest of my life as I hope to be as inclusive as possible. Here at Notre Dame we pride ourselves in “welcome all people, regardless of color, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, social or economic class, and nationality, for example, precisely because of Christ’s calling to treat others as we desire to be treated” (The Spirit of Inclusion at Notre Dame by Notre Dame by Notre Dame - Moreau FYE Week 10). I also found inclusivity and acted upon my personal mission statement even though I had not created it yet during the BLM movement. This included standing up for George Flyod (George Floyd by Marcus Cole - Moreau FYE Week 12). I think one of my bigger role models to change to be a better person is not only the person who I spend the most time with nor my parents who I look up to do a lot better in. I think a person who would tell me to self improve and is a great role model even though I have never met him is Father Hesburgh. I know through his walks with MLK and the amazing changes he did at Notre Dame that he would have benefited me greatly and I want to follow in his steps of inclusion and love of others while still achieving great things in his own life (Hesburgh by Jerry Barca - Moreau FYE Week 2). Through Father Hesburgh's actions I have been able to create a better life mission statement for myself and one that I will continue to act upon no matter the circumstances. I will continue to live out my life like this because of something that we read in this class. “Everyone dies, their bodies rot, and every face becomes a Brown 3 skull (Meet the Nun Who Wants to Remind That You Will Die - Ruth Graham - Moreau FYE Week 3). By this you have to live your life to the fullest and know what you are about to do with your life. By this you have to know the career field you want to enter and make it your goal to be the best both morally and for others that you can be. I think that is what this moreau class is about how to live your life to the fullest and your career to the fullest alongside helping out the community around us. However this cannot be done unless “The only way to know more about yourself is to test the waters - just get out and experience life!” (Navigating Your Career Journey by Meruelo Family Center - Moreau FYE Week 4). The one thing for me is exploring. Without going down a couple different paths to understand going down wrong paths and right ones that fit with you. No one is the exact same so therefore people must try different paths so that they understand each other. Irish Compass is an easy way to find people who will help you on your path because of the network that Notre Dame gives (Irish Compass - Moreau FYE Week 5). It directly relates to the issues of living your own personal mission statement. I think that by living my own personal mission statement I have to help others I think a great relationship of this is an example from Steve Reifenberg where he says:“They did not see their caring for me as a grand gesture of generosity; they simply did, in the moment, what needed to be done. But it wasn’t only when I was sick that they accompanied me” (A Learning Journey Together by Steve Reifenberg - Moreau FYE Week 9). While helping other I do want to help myself as much as possible to live my life and be as happy as possible. Being happy for me is following ambitions of mine which include learning spanish and being in a happy relationship. Aria Swarr's short film 5 Minutes reminds me to focus on the things I can control rather than the things that seem to be 'happening to me' for no apparent reason. I'm having a hard time staying motivated in my Spanish class right now since I believe Brown 4 the curriculum is poorly planned and not conducive to becoming a competent speaker (Grotto by Aria Swarr - Moreau FYE Week 6). Because I have no influence over it, I'd like to divert my emphasis away from it. I believe it is better for me to concentrate on how I can make the assignments and lessons more beneficial to me in the future, as becoming a Spanish scholar has been a lifelong ambition of mine. Relationship wise I was able to build a beautiful relationship with friends and more this year and through this I was able to succeed but I will going away for summer and it really scares me. “The gulf too wide and the gap too distant, the walls grow higher, and we forget who we are meant to be to each other” I think this quote from tattoos on the heart show the struggle relationships can be and it doesn't really touch on how meaningful they can be for your life (Tattoos on The Heart by Fr. Greg Boyle - Moreau FYE Week 7). While I have felt this way before and it is very tough in a situation like this it becomes understandable and you must learn not to widen that gap and not to deepen the trench with someone. Along with good relationships I have had bad ones and I followed Paul Blaschko's advice to drop the toxic people in your life because if you don't then it will create problems for you and others (How to Avoid an Echo Chamber by Paul Blashko - Moreau FYE Week 11). By doing this I was able to distance myself from these people and focus on people I wanted to be around, therefore improving those peoples lives and other people's lives. I think it was amazing how this year has changed my life for the better and how moreau while it was only one hour a week was able to make me think about my personal mission statement.