Kelton Castillo Apr 29, 2022 Me and my time at Notre Dame I have learned so much about myself during my first year here at Notre Dame. My Moreau First-Year Experience Course played a big part in my road to figuring out who I am and what I want to do with my life in several ways. For instance, through the set of QQC’s that focused on reflection as on how to live a life well-lived, I learned that I am a very goal-driven person. I define how good my life is being lived based on my level of success, and that’s something that I never gave much thought to until Moreau’s First-Year Experience.Another example of how helpful Moreau was are the QQC’s that focused on careers and what we wanted to do with our life. Due to that, I was able to discern what it is that I want to do with the rest of my life, I even reflected on whether my current major was right for me. Drafting my mission statement was a bit difficult for me at first because I didn’t know how to start it or what to say in it. However, I ended up with a pretty good first mission statement that I have been proud to say has been updated since the last time I revised it. My new mission statement reads, “KC is a very outgoing person that’s driven by his values and goals. During the fall semester, KC came in motivated and excited to see what the future held for him at the University of Notre Dame. Still, with his goals and values in mind, KC persevered throughout the fall semester and tried to keep persevering throughout the spring semester. Due to being in a new environment and reflecting on how life was going and where he wanted to be, the values and goals that KC came to college with slightly changed/improved. That’s because KC set new goals for himself after meeting his previous goals. Writing his eulogy was a fun experience that helped him realize that the day he has to write his actual speech he’ll probably just make jokes throughout all of it. Or, on the other hand, he’ll probably procrastinate and not write one at all. One thing that KC knows for certain, is that whatever path he chooses he’ll maintain his faith and connection with God. From a young age KC was told that whatever he does, to keep GOd at the center of it. To pray to God in the God and in the bad because he can get you through the worse storm, but you also have to thank him for protecting you throughout the journey. KC’s connection with God is his own and it’s a good one according to himself. God loves me and I love him. I’m happy because of him and I have learned to see the lessons in the hardships. I trust in God as he trusts in me. To me, KC, success can have several looks, but the way I see me being successful is by being happy and financially stable. Succes to KC means breaking generational chains, no longer living paycheck to paycheck like his parents. It means traveling and being able to see the world. It means being happy doing whatever job he has, because at that point the job will practically be a hobby. It means starting a family and having a good support group. It means to be living my best life and having good company by my side. To me, KC, succes is not a dream, success is something that I am destined for! This newly revised mission statement was made possible by all my QQC’s. For isnstance, the very first QQC we did this semester asked us about “What life am I living?”. And that question hit hard because is not everyday that I sit back and reflect on my life, but I had to for the assignment and I’m glad I did. Sometimes I feel as though I am living multiple lives, or that my life is not in my control.What do I do when I feel like I’ve lost control of my life? Well, Why we need to slow down our lives by Pico Iyer states,one of our week 1 readings, reads, “It’s easy to feel as if we’re standing two inches away from a huge canvas that’s noisy and crowded and changing with every microsecond. It’s only by stepping farther back and standing still that we can begin to see what that canvas (which is our life) really means, and to take in the larger picture”. This is significant to me because that’s what I try to do. I try my best to take things slow and think about what is important to me. Someone that made me reflect on my life and what has inspired my life decisions or the worth of my life is Father Hesburgh. After watching the film for week 2 of Moreau, I began to think about what might inspired a life well lived for me. The Hesburgh Film was really emotional and inspiring for me, seeing Father Hesburgh live his life and all he accomplished was truly amazing. Seeing him stick to his belief and being himself no matter what was inspiring and that’s something that I aspire to do. Week 3 of Moreau send me on a search frenzied, an internal search frenzied at that. The focus question for that week being, “What questions guide a life well-lived?” whats the jump starter for all my questions. As little kids we question everything, always asking why this and why that, and we continue to do this even as adults. However, the questions become more complex. Like what am I doing with my life and why am I doing it? Where am I supposed to be? I feel as those particular questions are the questions that guide a well-lived life. An excerpt from the text/audio, Meet the nun who wants you to remember that you will die , by Ruth Graham, a week 3 reading, reads, “That is because since 2017, she has made it her mission to revive the practice of memento mori, a Latin phrase meaning "Remember your death." The concept is to intentionally think about your own death every day, as a means of appreciating the present and focusing on the future. It can seem radical in an era in which death - until very recently - has become easy to ignore”. This spoke to me because I try to emphasize to others and myself that stressing about the past doesn't do any good to you. You can’t let life pass you by, you have to live in the present, and keep in mind your future. That also connects to week 4 and what we might do to lead a good life. For instance, A line from Navigating Your Career Journey by Meruelo Family Center for Career Development, a week 4 reading, that really spoke to me reads, “The idea is that the best career choices for a person are those that allow him/her to implement as many part of his/her self-concept as possible”. You have to look within yourself and know your skills, then start to think about possible pathways that will allow you to use your skills on your everyday life. Become successful doing what you already know what to do. Throughout my time here at Notre Dame I not only had to think about how I perceived myself, but also had to think about how others perceive me. This has been a hardtopic for me because although I think I’m a good person, everyone else might not think so. And yes, Ii know you can’t please everyone, but I don’t like being on noone’s bad side. For week 5’s discernment conversation I talked to Daymine Snow and this is how the conversation went. Me: “What do you think I most value and desire in life? Why?” Daymine: “Other people happiness because you would sacrifice your own happiness for others” Me: “What issues are important to me? Or, what do you think I want to change in the World?” Daymine: “Your invested in helping the upcoming generations and working with kids” This conversation highlights how much I value my relationships with others, so being perceived in a bad way is truly hurtful. I am joke and say I identify as an apple because humans are just not it sometimes. But at the end of the day, I am still human which means I make mistakes, even if unconsciusly. So when we got to week 6 and we were asked, “What are personal obstacles to living a life well-lived and how do I respond?” I immediately reflected on week 5. One of the obstacles that stop me is that I care too much about what people might think of me. I do a lot of self reflection and try to find the best ways to deal with my issues by myself because I feel like I am the only person that understands me. A quote from The Right Way to be Introspective (Yes, There's a Wrong Way) by Tasha Euric, a week 6 reading, that really spoke to me reads, “We can spend endless amounts of time in self-reflection but emerge with no more self-insight than when we started”. This really stood out to me because it illustrates how no matter how much self reflection you do at times it can be pointless. But what can I do? If I can’t help myself, who do I go to for help? Who can I trust when everyone that I have placed trust on has hurt me or can’t relate to my struggles? I don’t have the best responses to my problems, but the system is extremely corrupted and aside from God, I’m all I got. Going into week 7 what I had said in week 6 is immediately contradicted by Pope Francis in Why the only future worth building includes everyone , a video that we had to watch for that week. Something that the Pope said that stuck with me reads, “Happiness can only be discovered as a gift of harmony between the whole and each single component”. Which means that we should strive to reach internal happiness but we must also try to help others reach happiness. It feels good to be good and do good. And I truly believe that my purpose in life is to spread joy to others. Although I identify as an apple, we still share humanity as a common trait. “The people I had so earnestly come to serve (and whose lives I had imagined transforming) had to take care of me. I wept, partly from the illness, but mostly out of frustration at how little the vision of me sick in bed resembled the one in my head of an autonomous me helping the needy them. That equation had been flipped”. This quote from, Teaching Accompaniment: A Learning Journey Together , a week 9 reading by Professor Steve Reifenberg, really stood out to me because it highlighted how the people helped a complete stranger, they saw him in pain and although they didn’t know him they empathize with him and helped him. All those QQC’s helped me grow as an individual, they made me wiser, no punintented to week 11 focus question, which is, “How do I become wise?”. But I feel as though I grew a lot throughout this school year and for that I am grateful, I have a better understanding of things that I once didn’t understand. I have a new and better mission statement and my goals are clear to me. So, I’ll close with one of my favorite quotes, ““Your story may not have such a happy beginning but that does not make you who you are, it is the rest of it- who you choose to be”(the Soothsayer from Kung Fu Panda 2).