Integration 3 Moreau FYS Integration 3 3/4/22 Die Doing What You Love Writing your own eulogy is a difficult assignment because you’re supposed to summarize your life into a few paragraphs. This is hard for me personally because I feel like I haven’t even started living my life yet. I still have so many goals, plans, and bucket-list items to check off that the 19 years I’ve lived so far feel insignificant. I can write an idealized version of how I hope my life will have been lived, and at the end of the day I hope it will have been a “well-lived” one. I think one of the most important things Mary learned throughout her life is to not take anything too seriously. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the stress of daily life, always worried about the next exam, assignment, or “big thing” that’s coming up. The problem is that it makes you constantly look towards the future and prevents you from appreciating the beauty and joy in your everyday life. Most of the time this ends up hurting more than helping because it makes you feel like you have to “escape” and just hold on until the next thing that will make you happy. Whether that’s a Friday night you can spend with your friends or a week of Spring Break. Pico Iyer, author of “Why we need to slow down our lives”, agrees with this philosophy. It’s important to carve out time to relax because giving our minds time to wander sparks imagination and creativity that positively influences the work we produce (“Why we need to slow down our lives” by Pico Iyer - Moreau FYE Week 1). Mary worked hard, but she also took the time to slow down and take a step back from the craziness to have fun and form meaningful connections with others. This leads to another fundamental idea she lived her life by: relationships are critical to a life well-lived. The world we live in is so divided by race, gender, political affiliation, religion and so much more. The only way we can overcome these barriers to unity is by embracing the teachings of Gregory Boyle from his book “Tattoos on the Heart”. Boyle believed that by interacting with people who live different lives than us we widen our spheres and this pushes us to become better and more understanding versions of ourselves (“Tattoos on the Heart” by Gregory Boyle - Moreau FYE Week 7). Mary didn’t deny the fact that she could be judgemental towards herself and others, but she always worked to diversify her relationships and form as many connections as she could during her life. Two relationships she highly valued during her time at Notre Dame were her very good friends Anna and Elizabeth (shoutout to the Moreau gang). Her favorite thing about conversations with these two girls was how they could be honest with each other, and provide feedback to build each other up and become the best versions of themselves. During a Discernment Conversation Activity, Elizabeth helped Mary identify things she valued or desired in life, as well as issues that were personally important to her https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-need-a-secular-sabbath/ https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-need-a-secular-sabbath/ https://canvas.nd.edu/courses/40250/files/524003/download?download_frd=1 (“Discernment Conversation Activity” - Moreau FYE Week 5). This helped Mary picture the way she wanted her life to look going forward, and helped her shape the path her life would take. Mary loved to take inspiration from other lives she perceived to be “well-lived”. It helped to guide her when she was feeling lost or questioning what to do next. One of these figures was the brilliant Father Theodore Hesburgh, former President of her Alma Mater, the University of Notre Dame. Mary believed we should all strive to imitate the kindness and enthusiasm that Father Hesburgh carried out his daily life with, especially his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement (“Hesburgh” produced by Jerry Barca and Christine O’Malley - Moreau FYE Week 2). It was important for Mary to identify her passions and what brought her joy because she knew that eventually her time would end. Another figure she looked up to was Sister Theresa Altheia Noble, the nun who famously spread the saying “memento mori”, remember you will die (“Meet the Nun who wants you to remember you will die” by Ruth Graham - Moreau FYE Week 3). Mary and Sister Noble shared the idea that we can’t ignore the fact that death is everywhere, but you’ll live your life far more meaningfully by accepting that fact instead of constantly stressing over it. Something that really helped Mary find purpose in her life though was discerning the path she wanted to take in life. It was something she struggled with a lot throughout high school and college. She loved learning, especially things that challenged her and pushed her to deeply engage with a topic. Her passion for knowledge is what got her to Notre Dame, and the challenges she encountered there were what led her to pursue a degree in Applied Computational Mathematics and Statistics (although she could have done without the physics classes she was required to take). Oftentimes our lives don’t follow a linear pattern, as much as we can hope and plan the nice, neat order we want to do things in, we have to keep in mind that sometimes things get messy. The Meruelo Family Center for Career Development encouraged Mary to consider that you shouldn’t give up on your dreams or get discouraged if the process to achieving them takes longer than you expected (“Navigating your Career Journey” by the Meruelo Family Center for Career Development - Moreau FYE Week 4). Mary strived her whole life to always try to become a better version of herself, and to develop the concept of a life well-lived. This wasn’t always easy, because self-improvement is a hard process to enact. Even identifying what it is about yourself that you want to improve seems daunting or impossible. Mary just tried her best to possess insight, an intuitive understanding of oneself, to change her mindset on self improvement (“The Right Way to Be Introspective” by Tasha Eurich - Moreau FYE Week 6). She realized that constantly identifying your own perceived faults and basing your self-worth off of your ability to change those factors is not self-improvement. Putting in the time and effort to “knowing” yourself is what helps you to change your mindset and eventually work towards becoming the best person you can be. Mary died doing what she loved. Rescuing a rabid possum. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yZ7hqvx-u4EuW2nlK-fRbWFiurQm1mZv_KpoeeiN4So/edit?usp=sharing https://notredame.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=10159379-7eca-4549-8581-ab9500c9ecd9 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/14/us/memento-mori-nun.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/14/us/memento-mori-nun.html https://undergradcareers.nd.edu/navigating-your-career-journey---moreau/ https://ideas.ted.com/the-right-way-to-be-introspective-yes-theres-a-wrong-way/