Capstone Integration Conway 1 Professor Pruitt Moreau FYE 29 April 2022 The Path to a Life Well-Lived: Will I Find It at Notre Dame? I believe that when good things happen, you have a right to hold them tight. Therefore, I will seek out happiness and embrace it when it comes. Specifically, I task myself to lean into relationships, to put my trust into the hands of others and allow them to hold it. I value community and I want to be loved, so I will not back down from relationships. I will hold firm to the happiness I receive from others and I will be present with them. I will experience with and live through. Furthermore, I believe that being satisfied with yourself at the end of the day is an achievement worth working towards. It is hard to reflect on yourself and be truly, genuinely proud, but I will strive for this feeling of inner harmony. To do this I will work my hardest. I will get a job that I love and do it well. I will work to promote the good of others through my occupation and grow as my own person in the process. Though, I will still continue to appreciate life inherent. I will read the books I want to read and take sunset walks and open the window to smell the rain. No matter what successes I chase or what direction I am taken in, I will always consider the point of life to be alive. This being said, as I live, I will attempt to figure out what exactly it is that makes us alive, that forms our lives. I will strive for all of this because I believe in the idea of eudaimonia - of human flourishing - of the idea that the greatest good is to truly live and to live well for yourself and Conway 2 others. At the end of my life, I want to feel a sense of eudaimonia, and I follow my goals in pursuit of that. I believe that this mission statement isn’t only a reflection of how I’ve grown over the past year, but also a guideline for how I want to continue to thrive in the upcoming years of my life. First, I want to seek out happiness and embrace all the good times I have. I believe I have been doing this way better than I have in the past and now my future is ripe with opportunities. I think this is the main insight that I gained, one I hadn’t been able to articulate properly before, in the mission statement assignment (“Writing a Personal Mission Statement Activity” by - Moreau FYE Week Thirteen). An example of this newfound attitude is that I am going to Rome this summer to study abroad. When I committed to the program, I didn’t know anyone I knew on the trip, but instead of fear, I faced the opportunity with only happy anticipation (and maybe a little bit of nerves). Now, I have already made a few friends in the program, and am even more excited to go. Me, of all people, preparing to fly to a foreign country for five weeks having done nothing of the sort before. A year ago, this would have been a completely ludicrous notion but now it is a reality. Dr. Kim’s message in our Week Six Moreau assignment really hits home with this point. We have to let all of our emotions in and feel them as they come. It’s ok to be a little anxious, but we also have the right to be happy when we have the chance to be and the duty to ourselves to experience our joy full force (“5 Minutes” by Grotto - Moreau FYE Week Six). I embraced the opportunity I was given and am ready to embark on it backed with confidence in myself and trust in my ability to make friends and open myself up to other people. Not only will I get to learn new things about myself on this trip, but I will also be able to experience another culture in a way that I have never had the chance to https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ur4b9oFy7Mh8adNrwRTIFcanUIJUAI6wnAczkxW-H3I/edit https://grottonetwork.com/make-an-impact/transform/why-does-god-allow-suffering/?utm_source=moreau&utm_medium=class&utm_campaign=spring_2022 Conway 3 before. There is so much we don’t know about each other, whether it's personal, cultural, or situational, and that is why it is so important to make the effort in the first place (“Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism” by Robin DiAngelo - Moreau FYE Week Ten). This being said, something I believe strongly, that we discussed in Week XII, is that we have to contextualize our knowledge of other people (“‘I am George Floyd. Except, I can breathe. And I can do something’” by Dean G. Marcus Cole - Moreau FYE Week Twelve). In other words, you have to place people within their life experiences in order to best understand and respect them; I can’t assume that everyone I meet in Rome will have the same life experiences as me because that would be diminishing their value and ruining my own chance for learning. We all have a better chance of living a happy, fulfilled life if we embrace the experiences of others and add them to our own perspective, and that is the main thing I hope to gain in Rome (“Why the only future worth building includes everyone” by Pope Francis - Moreau FYE Week Seven). Another important way I want to incorporate my mission statement into my life is through my career. I want a job where I can do good for others, and thus be proud of myself because being able to love what you do when you get up in the morning and when you go to sleep at night is so crucial to a good life (“Week 5 Discernment Conversation Activity” by Pete Conway - Moreau FYE Week Five). With the help of the Moreau activities we did, I have discovered over the past year that I want to go to law school and work as a human rights lawyer (“Exploring a Life Well-Lived - Career Development Reflection” by Merulo Family Center for Career Development - Moreau FYE Week Four). Specifically, I think I want to work with refugees. The discussions we had as a class in Moreau this semester also guided me in this direction and I am very grateful for that. We spoke so much about giving to and gaining from as a key to interaction and, specifically, in Week IX we talked about reciprocity (“Teaching https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bdVnfLDrJUJhd-4UtYb_kfRpcFgOoOeY7O1WT8_d3iw/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bdVnfLDrJUJhd-4UtYb_kfRpcFgOoOeY7O1WT8_d3iw/edit https://law.nd.edu/news-events/news/dean-g-marcus-cole-i-am-george-floyd-except-i-can-breathe-and-i-can-do-something/ https://law.nd.edu/news-events/news/dean-g-marcus-cole-i-am-george-floyd-except-i-can-breathe-and-i-can-do-something/ https://www.ted.com/talks/his_holiness_pope_francis_why_the_only_future_worth_building_includes_everyone/transcript https://www.ted.com/talks/his_holiness_pope_francis_why_the_only_future_worth_building_includes_everyone/transcript https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yZ7hqvx-u4EuW2nlK-fRbWFiurQm1mZv_KpoeeiN4So/edit https://nd.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0AGRyH4SWX0bz38 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hZbSdVImfn2hZDqMrdL96dZCNOtHuf6C-lg3sH-Rs30/edit Conway 4 Accompaniment - A Learning Journey Together ” by Professor Steve Reifenberg - Moreau FYE Week Nine). I want to learn from people all around the world; I don’t want my perspective to be only as a girl from the New Jersey suburbs - I want to experience so much more than that. I also want to do good for others and actively participate in the world community. A tangible step I am taking towards this goal here at Notre Dame is applying to be a research assistant in the Kellogg International Scholars Program. If all goes well, next year I will be helping a professor with his research on genocide and mass atrocities, and I could not be more excited. I am taking another step into the real world and finally getting a chance to see my interests materialize into something tangible. Furthermore, especially with polarizing social media, we have to be careful with what we consume, but through this program, I’ll get the chance to learn on my own initiative and with my own senses (“How to Avoid an Echo Chamber” by Dr. Paul Blaschko - Moreau FYE Week Eleven). I’ll be able to pave my own path into my future. Moreover, even just making my schedule for next semester, I haven’t been so passionate about the classes I’m taking in a very long time. It is so important to find your calling and act on it because not only will that help you live your best life for yourself, but also, for others as well. If you have passion and drive, then the results will be clear - people will feel the positive effects of your calling and you will be able to maximize your good in the world (“Hesburgh” by Jerry Barca and Christine O’Malley - Moreau FYE Week Two). The last aspect of my mission statement that I want to continue to animate throughout my time at Notre Dame is the skill of simply living. This is something I have talked about consistently over the last year, especially in the last integration, but I honestly cannot emphasize how important it is to my personal view of a life well-lived (“Integration III Assignment” by - Moreau FYE Week Eight). One specific example that comes to mind is https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hZbSdVImfn2hZDqMrdL96dZCNOtHuf6C-lg3sH-Rs30/edit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaIVxQcqnLs&t=1s https://notredame.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=10159379-7eca-4549-8581-ab9500c9ecd9 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SkhkzZIMH2UwJauu5J_yq76rGV0GcG_lVd8KPBLTFF0/edit Conway 5 when my friends and I recently walked to the Huddle to grab some snacks but, since it was so nice out, we decided to stay outside for the rest of the night. We got our ice cream and sat on the quad, talking and looking at the stars. This is my favorite kind of experience and it put me in such a good headspace for the next few weeks, which are going to be tough for all of us. Life moves so fast and there is so much expected of us and sometimes it's hard to remember the value of slowing down, but it is something so crucial to our well-being and happiness (“Why we need to slow down our lives” by Pico Iyer - Moreau FYE Week One). Despite all the plans I have for my future and all the activities I plan to do over the next three years, I also want to just be able to enjoy college because it is college. When else am I going to be able to live with all of my friends and be able to stay up all night doing nothing? I have really appreciated this part of my life as something so special and unique, and plan to take full advantage of it while I can. Though, this isn’t a lifestyle that only pertains to college but, rather, something I want to continue to pursue throughout my entire life. I want to keep loving and appreciating life until the day I die because, not to be trite but, what’s the point if not to be actually alive when you are alive (“Three Key Questions” by Fr. Michael Himes - Moreau FYE Week Three). Overall, I think that the mission statement I created is a good reflection of my values and an accurate representation of the path I want to take on my journey of living a well-lived life. Living well requires a combination of appreciating the world around you, loving being yourself, enjoying what you do, and learning from others. You should find harmony both within yourself and through other people. I hope to be able to realize this throughout my next three years at Notre Dame and I am going to work hard to do so. 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/38593/files/470631?module_item_id=145531 https://canvas.nd.edu/courses/38593/files/470631?module_item_id=145531