Capstone Integration Caroline Van Bell Capstone Integration A Life Well Lived: CVB My Mission Statement: I am at my best when I am working towards a goal that matters to me. I am at my worst when I worry too much about things that I cannot control. I am truly happy when I am surrounded by people I love, doing something that brings me joy. I want to be a person who is known for their kindness, wisdom, and love. Someday I would like to travel to every continent on the planet. My deepest positive emotions come when I am hiking, running, swimming, or skiing in crisp, fresh, outdoor air or when I am sharing a meal with family or friends. My greatest talents and best gifts are setting challenging goals for myself and reaching those goals, and also the ability to have perspective about the struggles and successes in my life. When all is said and done, the most important things in life are my faith, my family and my health. My mission is to live my most joyful, loving, healthy life and inspire others to live their lives to the fullest. I will seek to recognize God’s guidance throughout the good times and the bad times. I want to be at peace with myself and my place in the world. I aspire to be a source of love and joy. I view every day as an opportunity to seek joy. I am constantly growing, learning, and evolving.1 Making a path for pursuing a life well-lived isn’t easy. It requires a deep introspection, a realization of your own beliefs and values, and coming up with ideas for how you can most fully live out your values. 1 Personal Mission Statement, Week 13 Throughout my first year at Notre Dame, I’ve taken fascinating and challenging courses, met incredible people, and made many formative memories. This past year has been simultaneously the most joyful, stressful, and significant period of growth of my life thus far. Throughout these past months, I have started to formulate what a life well-lived looks like for me. I anticipate that my path for pursuing a well-lived life will change as I continue in my Notre Dame journey, and I certainly hope that my path evolves. My experiences thus far have shaped what I value, my goals, and my ideas about who I am and what I will become. One piece of advice that has shaped my mission statement and life outlook is that “the only way to know more about yourself is to test the waters- just get out and experience life.”2 I’ve definitely learned this via my experiences this semester. I learned a lot about my leadership skills and my ability to form relationships with other people in my dorm community when I decided to run for Ryan Hall vice president this spring. I was really nervous and unsure of myself, especially because I was only a freshman. But I am so glad that I ran (and ended up winning), because it has already allowed me to feel so connected to the incredible people in Ryan. I feel so much joy working with the girls in Ryan and find the position of vice president very challenging but rewarding. As Pope Francis said in his Ted Talk, the foundation of what you do needs to be rooted in a love for the people around you, and I have found this to be great guidance for my role as Ryan vice president.3 This semester, I learned that I am at my worst when I spiral into worry about things I cannot control, and also when I have self-doubt. This was a difficult realization for me, but talking to my parents helped me form this realization. They gave me the advice to work on quieting the voice of self-doubt in my mind; the one telling me that I’ll never be creative enough, smart enough, or confident enough.4 This is definitely something that I am still working on as I pursue a well-lived life, because my self-doubt can take over my mental energy and can drain me. If I let my anxious thoughts take over, it makes it very difficult to direct my focus towards the pursuits that are truly important to me. Another thing I am still working on in my life well-lived is keeping this in mind: the more time I spend away from my work, the 4 Phone call with Debbie and Marc Van Bell, Week 5 3 “Why the only future worth building includes everyone” by His Holiness Pope Francis, Week 7 2 “Navigating your career journey” by Meruelo Family Center for Career Development, Week 4 https://www.ted.com/talks/his_holiness_pope_francis_why_the_only_future_worth_building_includes_everyone/transcript https://undergradcareers.nd.edu/navigating-your-career-journey---moreau/ better that work will be, most often.5 I am more inclined to say that I “worked” for a few hours, but in actuality half that time I was distracted and not actually working. I’ve learned that I do better when I have more things scheduled outside of schoolwork, because I am able to work much more efficiently and effectively, and I get to have the important experiences with my friends, clubs, and self-care activities that are important in helping me grow holistically. Another area of growth in my life well-lived is incorporating daily reflection and prayer so that I can come to truly know myself by knowing God.6 It can be frustrating at times to think about how I used to be much better about mindfulness and prayer during high school, and feel disappointed that I am not doing these things as much as I used to. However, I think this is definitely part of a well-lived life; we realize where we’ve slipped, don’t beat ourselves up too much, and try to get back up and keep going. Something that has stuck with me from this semester is the truth that it is “in facing the darkest realities of life that we find light in them.”7 I think this mindset is another critical aspect of a life well-lived that I am still working on. It can be very difficult to stay optimistic when things are tough, but a strong mindset can be so important in finding the light during dark times. This spring semester has allowed me to form new friendships, strengthen my friendships from the fall, and challenge myself intellectually. One story that stuck with me was from the movie “Hesburgh” when Father Hesburgh was given an emerald ring by the Pope, and the ring simply sat in his desk collecting dust.8 While this snippet from the Hesburgh movie might seem trivial and unrelated, I think it is truly one of the most vivid representations of a life well-lived. A life well-lived is one that is focused on relationships and experiences, rather than the accumulation of wealth or status. Additionally, in my relationships I continue to think about how I can use “all the skills and talents and experience [I have] to engage and allow your highest realization of your potential.”9 I think this concept of accompanying someone to allow them to reach their highest potential is very meaningful. Accompaniment is so 9 “Teaching Accompaniment: A Learning Journey Together” by Steve Reifenberg, Week 9 8 “Hesburgh”, Week 2 7 “Meet the nun who wants you to remember that you will die” by Ruth Graham, Week 3 6 “Ways to Practice Mindfulness” by McWell, Week 6 5 “Why we need to slow down our lives” by Pico Iyer, Week 1 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hZbSdVImfn2hZDqMrdL96dZCNOtHuf6C-lg3sH-Rs30/edit 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://drive.google.com/file/d/1SEXhurkurERNVdy8sgNwZaAKTAr-385q/view https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-need-a-secular-sabbath/ important in living a life well-lived, because it allows you to grow as a kind, wise, loving person; I am not a servant of others, but a neighbor. True accompaniment and encountering others in service is living out one of the most fundamental aspects of the Holy Cross mission.10 This semester, I had the opportunity to volunteer through Mercy Works, which is a joint project between the CSC and Campus Ministry. Every Tuesday afternoon, I took the bus to Hope Ministries, where I simply played with elementary school age children for a few hours. We would have such a great time, playing MarioKart and Apples to Apples, and it was incredible to know and see how the simple act of play was rewiring their brains and helping them heal from the trauma they’d experienced from such a young age. I think in the fast-paced life of college and constant notifications, news, social media, it can be difficult to slow down and really notice the relationships where we can find God’s love for us. One place where I came to realize God’s love for us was through my involvement with Mercy Works. I formed incredible relationships with the other ND students in my volunteering group, and with the kids we saw each week11. I think a well-lived life is one where we can form true relationships with others, and pay attention to the love that we have in our friendships. In my well-lived life, I want to be known as a person who is kind, wise, and loving; and I think that part of being known as someone who encompasses these characteristics is finding common ground with others and respecting differences too.12 As I continue to grow in my journey of a life well-lived, I hope to keep coming back to and refining my mission statement, using the experiences I have the next 3 years here to shape who I am and who I will become. 12 “Passion Isn’t Enough” by Hidden Brain Media, Week 11 11 “Growing up Gay and Catholic” by Jacob Walsh, Week 10 10 “Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross” Week 12 https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/passion-isnt-enough/ https://grottonetwork.com/keep-the-faith/community/reflective-narrative-about-being-gay-and-catholic/ https://holycrosscongregation.org/holy-cross-resources/constitutions/2-mission/