Moreau Integration



10/15/21
Erik Oswald
Moreau First Year Experience

Obtaining Meaning from Classroom Reflections
I believe that my purpose is to love. I think that that is every person’s purpose, whether they
believe it or not. It’s easy for us to get sucked up in our monotonous work or school lives and
think that our purpose is to finish the next assignment or to meet the next deadline. However, I
believe that it is important to look above our everyday lives and focus on the thing that ties all of
our actions together - love! In Week Two of Moreau class, we took a survey that told us about
our strengths and weaknesses, and my number one strength was love (Character Strengths
Survey Week 2 https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/account/register?registerPageType=popup).
This made sense to me. When I mentioned that to my discussion partner, he asked why I thought
it made sense. I replied that it was because I thought that love was the foundation of all human
connection. So, my purpose is to love. It is to love my family, my friends, my boyfriend, my dog,
and every other thing I encounter in my life. I have noticed that when I focus on loving and
appreciating the beautiful world around me, I am happier with all aspects of my life, because I
can recognize where I am blessed. I intend to do this more in the future.

I believe that I forge life-giving relationships by being vulnerable. In Week One of Moreau class,
we watched Brené Brown’s TED talk that discussed the psychological power of vulnerability
(TED Talk Brené Brown Week 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Qm9cGRub0&list=PLmiPsabET-W_hjesjTZaITh2s1Wb
M-Kd0&index=3). I agree with what Dr. Brown says in this TED Talk because I know that in my
experiences, what she said held true - vulnerability leads to human connection. When I want to
deepen my relationships with other people, I know that I need to discuss tougher topics with
them. One way this has happened recently is when two of my brother’s best friends passed away,
and I talked about it with my roommate. It turned out that one of her brother's best friends had
passed away a week before, so we were able to talk to each other and create a deeper relationship
where we are able to be more open about harder things, simply because we could relate when I
was vulnerable. Similarly, in Week Four of Moreau class, we read information about what is a
healthy relationship (“Healthy Vs. Unhealthy Relationships” The Red Flag Campaign Week 4
https://drive.google.com/a/nd.edu/file/d/0B93cIKOnINCLS1JpUzZ5Q1JseGs/view?usp=sharing
). I plan on using the information that I learned from this article in the future to inform how I
interact with people in my life to form healthy relationships.

I believe that I am responsible for growing. In Week Three of Moreau class, we read multiple
students’ viewpoints on their faith and how it impacted their time at Notre Dame (“Student
Reflections on Faith” Campus Ministry Week 3
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YVemqUBaAs5DNBPYm806TyQZr3F0xElP/view). This made

https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/account/register?registerPageType=popup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Qm9cGRub0&list=PLmiPsabET-W_hjesjTZaITh2s1WbM-Kd0&index=3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Qm9cGRub0&list=PLmiPsabET-W_hjesjTZaITh2s1WbM-Kd0&index=3
https://drive.google.com/a/nd.edu/file/d/0B93cIKOnINCLS1JpUzZ5Q1JseGs/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YVemqUBaAs5DNBPYm806TyQZr3F0xElP/view


me reflect on my time at my Catholic Dominican high school. I went into that school as a pretty
religious person because my parents had raised me in the church. However, my theology classes
forced me to look deeper into my belief system. Specifically, there was one class period where
the lecture was on the problem of suffering. This made me question my belief system and
eventually led me to realize that I don’t identify with the religious ideas that I was raised on. This
realization feels like growth to me, because I knew myself further and actually thought about
what I believed in, rather than just listening to other people tell me what is right. This sort of
growth inspired me to question the status quo and grow in ways that I deem important and
healthy. I plan on doing this in the future by thinking for myself and applying lessons from
Moreau class.

I believe that my community should follow the principles it was founded on. In Week Five of
Moreau class, we read what Moreau himself wrote: “The mind will not be cultivated at the
expense of the heart” (Moreau Letter Week 5
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o56woQDq3QrRkziT8eYrvYly5CQaP2Vb/view). This is
basically Moreau saying that while it is very important to learn as much as possible and to
expand our knowledge, in doing so we cannot forget to also grow in our capacity to love and
respect other people and things. I agree with this sentiment because it emphasizes the importance
of our humanity in our studies. Eventually, I want to use my degree that I earn at Notre Dame in
order to do good and help other people. This involves bettering my heart and soul as well as my
mind. For example, it is often easy for me to get lost in all the reading I have to do for my
philosophy class rather than focusing on how the different philosophies might apply to my life
and my future. Once I realized that I was doing this, I started to act more intentionally with my
assignments, and I plan on continuing that trend as I continue to study here at college, and I
believe that the rest of the Notre Dame community should, and will, do the same.

I believe that where I am from is essential to who I am. In Week Six of Moreau class, we wrote
poems about where we are from, based on an example by George Ella Lyon (“Where I Am
From” George Ella Lyon, Week 6 http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html). In my version of
this poem, I talked about my neighborhood that I grew up in with my family. It was, and still is,
one of my favorite places on Earth. I had a lovely childhood there which sometimes makes it
hard to be far from home, but I also know that it is time for me to move onto the next chapter of
my life, which is why the second stanza of my poem was about where I have come. The
experiences from my childhood shaped who I am and how I interact with the world around me
today, and I think it is important to recognize that. It is also important to note that there are a lot
of things I mentioned in that poem, like my neighbors and my family and others. However,
knowing about all of these things doesn’t mean that someone knows me in totality. This
reminded me of an activity from class - in Week Seven of Moreau class, we watched
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk on the danger of a single story, which connected

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o56woQDq3QrRkziT8eYrvYly5CQaP2Vb/view
http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html


because she discussed the fact that knowing one thing about a person doesn’t mean you know
everything about that person (“Danger of a Single Story” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Week 7
https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story). This
really resonated with me after writing that poem assignment because I realized that it was
impossible to encompass my entire background in a poem. With this connection to my
assignments and real life, I plan to apply that thinking to everyone I meet, reminding myself that
knowing one thing about someone is not the same as actually knowing them.

https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story