Miller 1 Professor Pruitt FYS 10101 03 December 2021 Integration Two Encountering and Overcoming Academic, Social, and Internal Challenges Since coming to Notre Dame three months ago, I have encountered many new challenges, such as those regarding school, grades, and overall academic expectations. Academic life at Notre Dame is rigorous, unsurprisingly, and the rigor at ND has caused me to reevaluate myself as a student. In high school, I was a perfectionist through and through; I strove for the highest grades always, and I found it hard to feel fully satisfied with my performance on essays or other assignments. However, at Notre Dame these past few weeks, I’ve actively tried to alter this perfectionist mentality and have loosened the stringent academic expectations I previously set for myself. I have learned that Bs here and there are not the end of the world, and criticism from professors on the papers I write or the lab reports I submit are not indications of a lack of hard work or complete misunderstanding. I have come to be much more accepting of “poor” grades and negative feedback, seeing both as opportunities for learning and improvement. I have focused on simply doing the best I can on every assignment instead of painstakingly striving for perfection and becoming upset with myself when I fall short. I have tried to embody the key messages in the “Why Letting Go of Expectations is a Freeing Habit” article from Week Nine, keeping in mind some of the questions the author of this article poses, like “Instead of letting Miller 2 your life be ruled by your own expectation that you have to perfect, what if you just did your best?” and “Instead of letting your life be defined by the grades you get, what if you focused on living a balanced life full of friends, family, work, and leisure?” (“Why Letting Go of Expectations is a Freeing Habit” by Julia Hogan – Moreau FYE Week Nine). By aligning my priorities more with aiming for my best (not my most perfect) self and recognizing that I need balance in regard to friends, family, and self-care, I have become better able to combat the academic challenges I face here and have formed a more mature outlook on school that does not hinge on perfectionism. Becoming integrated in the communal life at Notre Dame has also posed challenges for me, but I believe I have moved closer towards discerning my place in the Notre Dame community. During Week Eleven, we discussed the value of community, and Parker Palmer outlines many of the benefits of living in community in his “Thirteen Ways of Looking at Community:” he defined community as “not a goal to be achieved but a gift to be received” and states that we “need other people for comfort, encouragement, and support, and for criticism, challenge, and collaboration” (“Thirteen Ways of Looking at Community” by Parker Palmer – Moreau FYE Week Eleven). While I understand that the community that surrounds us shapes us and helps us grow, it is daunting to enter a school like Notre Dame that is full of talented, unique individuals. I struggled at first and continue to struggle with determining where I fit in and what contributions I can make as a student here. Right now, as a first-semester freshman, I focus mostly on staying on top of my immediate commitments in school and trying to foster close friendships inside and outside of my dorm. Going into the second semester and after, I plan to get more involved in clubs that I’m interested in, particularly those related to the medical field, and some of the service projects that ND students run in South Bend. By getting more involved https://grottonetwork.com/navigate-life/health-and-wellness/letting-go-of-expectations/?utm_source=fall_2021&utm_medium=class&utm_id=moreau https://grottonetwork.com/navigate-life/health-and-wellness/letting-go-of-expectations/?utm_source=fall_2021&utm_medium=class&utm_id=moreau http://couragerenewal.org/parker/writings/13-ways-of-looking-at-community/ Miller 3 in activities that reach beyond myself, instead of primarily focusing on my own responsibilities, I can find fulfillment and feel more a part of the ND community. Engaging more fully in what makes Notre Dame special—its close-knit and active community—will also expose me to more people’s perspectives and differing backgrounds. As described in the “Diversity Matters!” video, diversity enhances higher education in general because it allows students to interact with people that embody varying lifestyles, voice contrasting opinions, and see the world in a way that is fundamentally different from ourselves (“Diversity Matters!” by Prof. Augustin Fuentes – Moreau FYE Week Eleven). Though Notre Dame is not a relatively diverse campus in terms of race, ethnic background, or religion, I think that there is rich diversity of thought at ND, and I want to learn more about the different values, interests, and goals of other people within the Notre Dame community. At the same time, I want to identify how I can contribute to Notre Dame, whether that be through service, spiritual life, or research. Finally, coming to college has prompted me to embrace internal reflection in ways I never had before. I’ve come to value the difficulties I experience and recognize that periods of sadness and uncertainty are God’s way of helping me grow into a stronger, more adaptable person. Navigating new friends and figuring out who shares the same values as me has not been easy, and there have been times where I was uncomfortable, felt insecure, and really missed my friends from home. I think that reading the excerpt from The Screwtape Letters during Week Twelve reminded me that these periods of discomfort and self-doubt are valuable, as “It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that [the soul] is growing into the sort of creature [God] wants it to be” (“The Screwtape Letters” by C.S. Lewis – Moreau FYE Week Twelve). Recognizing that difficult periods enable growth, I no longer resent the periods of discomfort that being a freshman in college inevitably entails, and I have noticed that each https://notredame.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=d14a0472-9c0e-44ea-bd39-53c67ee1d436 file:///C:/Users/21_bm/Downloads/The%20Screwtape%20Letters%20by%20C.S.%20Lewis_Chapter%208%20(2).pdf Miller 4 experience, whether in school or with other people, is an avenue for better understanding myself. For example, I have learned to recognize when my “social battery” is low and have become more confident in setting social boundaries, letting myself have some time alone instead of constantly forcing myself to be social. Moreover, in addition to discovering more about myself personality- wise, I have reflected more extensively on and even challenged some of my beliefs since coming here. Much of this reflection has been enabled by my philosophy seminar, where we question the relationship between God and us as humans and apply ethical principles to controversial topics like crime and punishment, abortion, and euthanasia. Although I do not consider my opinions fully formed yet, I have moved closer to understanding where I fall on some of these issues. Still, I want to remember the advice given by Father Jenkins in his Wesley Theological Seminary Commencement regarding the need to “call on our conscience to explore our convictions and how we express them” (“Wesley Theological Seminary 2012 Commencement Address” by Fr. John Jenkins – Moreau FYE Week Ten). Father Jenkins urges us to express our convictions with love to persuade others and not promote hate through forceful, schismatic language. I aim to work towards forming my opinions on the controversial topics that are heavily debated today, respectfully voice these opinions, and listen to those who think differently from me. After all, as Jenkins makes clear, the way we interact with other people, particularly when disputed subjects are involved, has significant implications on the nature of our community and its ability to foster compromise and mutual understanding instead of ignorance, hatred, and division. https://president.nd.edu/homilies-writings-addresses/wesley-theological-seminary-commencement/