Integration Three Integration 3 The Story of Dylan From Dillon Today, we honor the life of or if you ask any Notre Dame student, Dylan from Dillon. I am sorry for calling you that Dylan, but they needed to know. One of the first things I want to talk about is how terrible Dylan was at taking time for himself. He always felt the need to be running around like a mad man, whether that be studying for his own test, hanging out with friends, or helping people in need. Although it never seemed like he took time for himself, this was his form of meditation in a way (not studying for test), but Dylan genuinely enjoyed every second of hanging with his friends and just taking a break from his studies ("Why we need to slow down our lives" by Pico Iyer, TED - Moreau Week 1). He took the study to heart from this article where it said that taking time to yourself will improve your own thinking skills. He learned from this and went from a man who really never took time to himself (especially during something like a finals week) to one who planned a specific time of when he would drop his book and just go hangout with friends and take a break. The next thing that I would say about Dylan was that he was able to form connections with anyone. For example, in week two of his Moreau class he was required to look over the domer dozen to see what young Notre Dame alumni were doing after college. I remember he was instantly able to make a connection with Dr. Austin Hickman who graduated from Notre Dame in 2016 (Gallery: Review the recent and previous honorees of the Notre Dame Alumni Association's "Domer Dozen." - Moreau Week 2). I know seeing how he was going in with the intention of computer science, but switching to finance while also being able to do some form of computer science really made him feel less pressure that he had to pick one or the other. He saw that there were ways to combine the do rather than just fully committing to one which put a smile on his face every time he thought about it. Dylan was also very big on helping the community around him. He took inspiration from a quote from week 3 of moreau, “Does the community call us to this work?” ("Three Key Questions" (adapted from Fr. Michael Himes) - Moreau Week 3). When he read this, I remember him calling me and https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-need-a-secular-sabbath/ https://domerdozen.nd.edu https://domerdozen.nd.edu https://canvas.nd.edu/courses/40336/files/475884?module_item_id=149291 complaining that this should not even be a question. It is not the community that calls us to work, everyone should just want to help everyone out because it was the right thing to do. Dylan stood by this principle that if everyone was just willing to help others without any incentive, then the world would simply just become a better place. This was something he was incredibly passionate about and I loved that about him. Although there were not many major flaws with Dylan, one of the main things I noticed was that he was always worried about what his career path would be until his second semester of freshman year in college. This is where he saw the quote, “Planning your career is much like planning for a trip. There are many details and decisions to make and it requires a lot of exploration and research. It’s not a one-step process.” (“Navigating Your Career Journey” by Moreau First YearExperience - Moreau Week 4). This calmed Dylan’s nerves as he was able to relate this idea to his own life and how we as a family were never able to pick where we wanted to go on vacation too. It took a very long time and a lot of sit downs to finally decide and sometimes we would even change what we originally chose. Knowing that he could change his career path opened Dylan’s mind to exploring things he may have not once tried and in doing this, he found that he may want to be an Econ major. I know Dylan would even try to tell his sister to calm down and relax because she does not need to know exactly what she will do with her life at this exact moment (as she also used to stress about this). This I know had a lasting effect on her and she is glad Dylan shared this with her. The next thing I want to talk about is the conversation I had with Dylan just a few weeks ago where he asked me a bunch of questions about himself and I had to answer accordingly. The first question that he asked me was what do I think he valued or desired in life and I remember giving him the story of when he helped his sister. She was upset over a test one day after school and I saw him skip going out with his friends to hangout with her and cheer her up. I explained to him that actions like these are what he is like and I hope that he continues this throughout the rest of his life (Conversation With My Mom - Moreau Week 5). Dylan loved his family more than anything in life and we all knew he would do https://undergradcareers.nd.edu/navigating-your-career-journey---moreau/ anything for any one of us and this was my favorite trait about him. He loved us all and we loved him dearly as well. Another thing that Dylan did a very good job of was knowing who he was and who he wanted to be regardless of what others thought. He never just went with what he thought people would like, but instead did what he thought was right and what would make him feel happy about himself. I remember him talking about the quote, “But to my astonishment, our data told the exact opposite story. The people who scored high on self-reflection were more stressed, depressed and anxious, less satisfied with their jobs and relationships, more self-absorbed, and they felt less in control of their lives” (“The Right Way to be Introspective (Yes, There’s a Wrong Way)” (Tasha Eurich, TED Conferences) - Moreau Week 6). He completely agreed with this quote as he would always argue that the people that just went with the flow were ones that were trying to make others happy and thus were not always making themselves happy. They then may think they're happy when deep down inside they really are not. Meanwhile, people who do know themselves, are stressed and anxious because they know exactly what they want and thus are worried if they cannot get it. Although he knows that it is not the best thing in the world to stress over things, he felt that he only did it because he truly knew what he wanted. One of the final things Dylan was passionate about was bringing different groups of people together to get a job done. Whether this would be in a school project or bringing different people from around the community together to help make the area a better place, he was always looking for different opportunities to connect people together to reach a common goal. One quote that stuck with Dylan came from Pope Francis, “We have so much to do, and we must do it together. But how can we do that with all the evil we breathe every day?” (“Why the only future worth building includes everyone” (His Holiness Pope Francis, TED - Moreau Week 7). This was the question Dylan was always trying to answer as he always wanted to bring people together regardless of the differences they may have had. He did not care if some people were deemed to be bad, he saw the good in everyone and thus tried to bring people together regardless of their reputation. This was another one of my favorite traits of Dylan and I will miss this everyday. https://ideas.ted.com/the-right-way-to-be-introspective-yes-theres-a-wrong-way/ https://ideas.ted.com/the-right-way-to-be-introspective-yes-theres-a-wrong-way/ 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 In conclusion, Dylan was loved by everyone he met and tried to be as nice as anyone could be to anyone that approached him. Was he perfect, absolutely not, did he have flaws, absolutely, but this did not mean that Dylan was not an angel. He was one of the kindest people I ever met and I will miss him dearly everyday. His presence touched everyone's heart and put a smile on everyone's face and I know he will be missed by all. I love you Dylan and will miss you dearly. No matter how much I hated it when you were alive, I wish I could hear, “what is the wagon today” one last time.