12-1-2021 

Learning Inside & Outside the Classroom 

It is crazy that I am close to the end of my first semester of college. Two weeks from now 

I will be done with all my finals and the next day I will be back at home. Some of the time 

during the semester, it is important to appreciate this craziness. A few years before Senior year of 

High School I did not really think of college or even if I will have the chance/money to get into 

college. I am part of a low-income family so I had doubts on my future, and these doubts 

dwindled closer to my senior year. I had hope because of others that were in my same shoes, but 

in higher grade levels, were getting scholarships within my high school.  

How does this connect with my development so far in the semester? This craziness is the 

result of being able to get to a place you did not expect to get to. This craziness was only 

possible because you got to this place only because of reasons you should not take for granted. I 

am doing this integration for a good grade, but focusing only on school can hinder the strength 

you had to get to where you are today. Additionally, this strength came from others that are back 

at home and that are not a commonality anymore. “To assume I could instantly meet my New 

Best Friends while also getting used to a new place, starting a new academic career, and learning 

how to adjust to life away from home — that’s a full plate already” (“Advice from a Formerly 

Lonely College Student” by Emery Bergmann - Moreau FYE Week Nine). It is stressful to 

experience this change, but try to know that your family and friends are rooting for you back at 

home. Let them be your push forward. 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/09/well/family/advice-from-a-formerly-lonely-college-student.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/09/well/family/advice-from-a-formerly-lonely-college-student.html


“I want people to also know that their hearts are breakable, and it’s a very good thing, 

that it’s worth celebrating because it allows you to grow and expand” (“Women Find Healing 

Through Kintsugi Workshop” by Grotto - Moreau FYE Week Ten). The Grotto states this to take 

away despair from people that have no hope. Sometimes it is good to accept your flaws so you 

can handle your flaws. Looking at your flaws you can see where you are now and how these 

flaws helped you to develop into something greater.  

The sentence after the quote helps to address this hope in a quite simple and obvious way, 

but still in a powerful way, as well. “And you get to put your heart back together” (“Women Find 

Healing Through Kintsugi Workshop” by Grotto - Moreau FYE Week Ten). You still have to 

work to put yourself together. You must put in effort so you can feel better about yourself and 

need to develop a way of thinking that inspires hope. This hope allows you to start putting your 

heart back together. 

 In my case, I would not say I need to put my heart back together, but rather my 

happiness back together. When trying to fix my time management, it became hard to stop 

procrastinating and to do my work on time. By procrastinating, I was more stressed and sadder. 

My coping mechanism for this was to realize that tomorrow I will not feel this way when the 

work is done. When I do not procrastinate, it shows that I learned from my mistakes and I try 

procrastinate less because I know it will lead to stress. I then know that I can fix my happiness 

through effort. 

 

At Notre Dame I feel a little out of place, and I was expecting this when I was here. However, I 

realized early on that I did not have to be out of place since there are a lot of nice people here. I 

https://grottonetwork.com/make-an-impact/heal/find-healing-through-kintsugi-art/
https://grottonetwork.com/make-an-impact/heal/find-healing-through-kintsugi-art/
https://grottonetwork.com/make-an-impact/heal/find-healing-through-kintsugi-art/
https://grottonetwork.com/make-an-impact/heal/find-healing-through-kintsugi-art/


feel welcomed and was greatly pleased with the community here, even as I experience a jump 

from the three percent of my high school that were white to the sixty-something percent at this 

school. As it is still a little awkward, it is important to know that “intimacy is neither possible nor 

necessary” for all the people I meet (“Thirteen Ways of Looking at Community” by Parker J. 

Palmer - Moreau FYE Week Eleven). This does not involve crossing races either, it is for all the 

people that are here. In a way, it would be awkward in any community to be close friends with 

everyone you meet. Lots of communities are not small, so having too many strong relationships 

is excessive. This can be the same if you feel that some people do not match your interests and 

would not be the right friends with you. 

With what I said, it is still important to realize “a capacity for connectedness is both possible and 

necessary if we are to inhabit the larger, and truer, community of our lives” (“Thirteen Ways of 

Looking at Community” by Parker J. Palmer - Moreau FYE Week Eleven). The quote tries to 

highlight that respect is still important. Disputes and hate are not the way to go. All this insight 

came about because of my experience this semester. What I was taught did not come from 

classes alone, but also from this insight that will allow me to feel more comfortable with 

individuals and to see the unknown is not too bad. 

 

Another thing I experienced is a change in learning process. There are so many experiences that 

are different compared to when I was back home which required me to be more independent. It 

was strange to do laundry on my own, to buy train tickets in combination with plain tickets, to 

plan out this trip in the first place, to organize times to eat, to organize social events along with 

homework, etc. There was so much to do on my own. There were so many things I did for the 

http://couragerenewal.org/parker/writings/13-ways-of-looking-at-community/
http://couragerenewal.org/parker/writings/13-ways-of-looking-at-community/
http://couragerenewal.org/parker/writings/13-ways-of-looking-at-community/


first time or I needed to do on my own way more often to balance school with my social life and 

my personal life. 

The trouble I have comes from having no experience. I had to get over the little 

experience I had with these tasks so I could start learning more and more. “The contemplation of 

new ideas and needs beyond our comfort zones requires a sacrificial willingness to put at risk 

everything that we think we already know” (“Hope - Holy Cross and Christian Education” by Fr. 

James B. King - Moreau FYE Week Twelve). This quote goes beyond to explain this. The tasks 

that I had to do on my own requires me to try to understand what I am doing first. Afterward, I 

must force myself to start and may not be able to use prior experience deal with these things. I 

learned that this was necessary to succeed in such a complex world that will change around me 

as I have come from high school to college, will go from first semester to second semester, to 

sophmore year, to the end of college, then into something I am currently not ready for.  

I am still developing and can see that from this paper that I have learned a lot from this 

semester a lone. So, I am ready to not be ready, but will be ready to learn.  

https://campusministry.nd.edu/assets/105621/