Beliefs I Live By 

1. I believe that it is important to be vulnerable at times.  

2. I believe that inner virtues are more important than external successes.  

3. I believe that faith is necessary to see the world as it is. 

4. I believe that friendship is the truest form of expression. 

5. I believe that a mindset of perseverance will allow for success, whether it be material 

or a learning a lesson. 

6. I believe that where I’m from is an integral part of who I am. 

7. I believe that though bias is inherent, people should try their best to judge the world 

around them on even grounds. 

 

1. I used to not believe in being vulnerable when I was way younger. I used to be very 

reserved and too selective about what I shared and who I shared it with. As I got older, I 

expanded and had more and more moments of vulnerability, whether it be an honest 

moment with myself or opening up to a friend. I now enjoy being vulnerable. As I open 

up and am more vulnerable, I make others comfortable enough to open up as well, and I 

learn so much more about those around me. There are also challenges in opening up. I 

fully opened up to a girl that I was in a relationship with, which made the breakup much 

harder. Something about another person knowing your weaknesses is very scary and 

that is the challenge of vulnerability. Brene Brown claims that vulnerability has a 

negative connotation because of the challenges that come with it but also believes that 

being vulnerable shows that you believe you are worthy of love and belonging. 

Overwhelmingly, those that believe this achieve it in the end (“The Power of 

Vulnerability” by Brene Brown – Moreau FYE Week One). This does not imply that one 

needs to always be vulnerable and seemingly overshare too much. It just means that it 

is important to utilize it at the right times with others. Throughout the last two months, I 

have had vulnerable moments with people I just met, which is something I never could 

have imagined before coming here. With time, I will become much more comfortable as 

I practice opening up and showing people my true self. 

2. I have always been motivated by success in school, sports, and almost anything. Up 

through most of high school, I did things for a goal of some measurable success like 

getting into college, getting a good grade, or getting an award. Within the last year or 

two, I have realized that success is not meaningful to me if I am not also succeeding for 

a purpose that I truly care about. For example, I want to do things for the right reason, 

like get into a good college so I can actually grow as a person and make a difference, 

instead of solely for the recognizable brand name. Some challenges in this development 

were me sometimes just wanting an achievement as a tool for something else. For 

example, I wanted to join Finance Club at my high school, just for a resume boost and 

not for my intellectual curiosity. David Brooks talks about his eulogy virtues being more 

important than his resume virtues. He wants to be remembered as loving and 

https://youtu.be/X4Qm9cGRub0
https://youtu.be/X4Qm9cGRub0


respected, not overachieved and viewed as a close friend (“Should You Live for your 

Resume or Your Eulogy” by David Brooks – Moreau FYE Week Two). Success is in no way 

a negative thing; however, if that success is at the expense of other valuable things, 

such as family life and inner morals, it is simply just not worth it to sacrifice that much. I 

still have a long way to go in my development because it is natural for someone to want 

the most successful achievements, career, or resume. I will use new skills learned on 

campus, especially those in Moreau, to discern what I actual enjoy and try to do things 

for the right reason, so that I may cultivate my personal virtues. 

3. As a kid, faith was very important to me. I learned to believe in things that were not 

exactly intuitive or provable from my parents and Church like most Christian kids do. I 

have become more skeptical in my faith, but I still maintain that it is an integral part of 

life that is necessary to understand the world around us and life in general. A lot of the 

time, it is just hard to commit to something you don’t know is true. I have struggled with 

my faith in the last few years, but I have realized that having faith is better than not 

having faith. David Fagerburg claims that without faith, we are only focused on 

ourselves in an egotistical way. It shows us that we are nothing without the grace of 

God, and we must help others (“Faith Brings Light to a Dark World” by David Fagerburg 

– Moreau FYE Week Three). This implies that faith unveils true reality to us. Everyone 

wants to see the world for what it actually is, so logically faith is a necessary step in this 

development. I am no where near perfect in my faith, but using my resources here with 

my theology classes, weekly masses, and religious student body in the same boat as me, 

I will focus on growing in my faith. 

4. By the time I got to high school, I found a group of friends that I got really close with. 

When I was with them, I realized that being this comfortable with others allowed me to 

truly express my ideas and aspiration in the purest form. Now, it does not have to by my 

best friends, but having a friend to express myself to is essential in being myself. 

Sometimes, people are not able to express themselves in friendships because those 

friendships are toxic. A toxic friendship brings one or more of the members down and is 

not enjoyable. This is completely counterintuitive to what friendship is about. Olivia 

Taylor says that investing in a long-term friendship should leave you hopeful, positive, 

and joyful. If this is not the case, it could be toxic (“5 Signs You’re in a Toxic Friendship” 

by Olivia T. Taylor – Moreau FYE Week Four). Taylor implies that when a friendship is 

not toxic, it is lifegiving and fully expressive of those involved. I will use the signs of toxic 

friendships I learned in this class to be cautious of falling into one of them. I want to 

grow true friendships while I am in college and not waste my time with a tiring toxic 

friendship. 

5. When I first began sports, I wanted to be the best at all of them. When I finally found 

one I was good at (swimming), I stuck it out until the end of high school. There is no 

more grueling sport to persevere through, but I kept on trudging no matter how hard it 

got. Perseverance has crossed over from sports into all aspects of my life as I have 

grown up, especially school. I believe this undertone of perseverance is what has gotten 

https://youtu.be/MlLWTeApqIM
https://youtu.be/MlLWTeApqIM
https://grottonetwork.com/keep-the-faith/belief/faith-brings-light-to-dark-world/?utm_source=fall_2021&utm_medium=class&utm_id=moreau
https://grottonetwork.com/navigate-life/relationships/signs-of-toxic-friendships/


me this far in life so far. An obvious challenge in perseverance is failure. If in the end I 

fail after constant perseverance, at least I can leave the situation with a knowledgeable 

lesson. Carla Harris speaks on her perseverance, and at one point in her life she was told 

not to apply to Ivy League schools because they’re too competitive, and she still 

graduated Summa Cum Laude from Harvard (“2021 Laetare Medalist Address” by Carla 

Harris – Moreau FYE Week Five). In this case, her perseverance absolutely paid off. She 

shook off the doubt of those around her and turned it into her fuel to achieve what she 

wanted. Obviously, sometimes perseverance is easily seen as not worth it in the long 

run, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t persevere most of the time. Since I have 

come to campus, I have had to persevere week in week out to maintain my grades, 

working for a degree four years down the road. With the end goal so far out of reach, it 

seems daunting to persevere, but I will not let these doubts get the best of me in the 

future. 

6. Growing up, I never realized how important my early experiences and where I am from 

was to the development of who I am. Since I got to school, I’ve realized that at the very 

least, where I grew up geographically was important. Since I’m from Michigan, I have 

had to hold up my hand to point to which part of Michigan I’m from countless times. I 

notice different things about people based on where they’re from and their childhood 

experiences they’ve told me about. A challenge with this belief is finding out how similar 

I am with people that have had seemingly completely different upbringings. I believe 

that though our childhoods seem different, they are actually similar at least in our 

interactions with our friends and families. That is where values are cultivated, which is 

why I have similar values to a lot of other people. I didn’t realize how important where 

I’m from is until we did the Week 6 “Where I’m From” assignment. Being able to reflect 

on my upbringing was a good experience because I had been so caught up in coming to 

school that I hadn’t taken the time to reflect in a long time. I don’t believe that our 

upbringing is exactly who we are, but it is a large part of what forms our behavior. I 

hope to be able to look back in the future and recognize my experiences here as being 

large parts of my past that impact who I am then. By taking each moment in and out of 

class to truly appreciate where I am, I will be able to diversify my experiences greatly. 

7. I first realized this belief on a political level years ago, but have been able to apply it to 

most aspects of life since. I do not enjoy current political dichotomies because nobody is 

willing to concede anything once they develop a preconceived belief. This also is 

applicable to biases on others. If we are not exposed to as many different things as 

possible growing up, we will develop deep biases and opinions on things (such as 

stereotyping others) that are hard to revert. I was lucky enough to grow up in an area 

with a diverse array of people and thoughts so that I was never too entrenched in any 

preconceived notion. Challenging this is the thought that if bias is inherent, why should I 

avoid it? Something being natural does not make it acceptable or preferred. For 

example, most sinful inclinations occur naturally, and we are supposed to deter away 

from them. Chimamanda Adichie said that it is important to understand many different 

https://youtu.be/UjSwjn-SyB4


sides to a person, or group of people (country). If we only know one side of the story, 

we invent untrue biases and stereotypes that are very hard to unearth (“Danger of a 

Single Story” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Moreau FYE Week 7). This implies that a 

life of ignorance is plagued by biases. Since coming to college, I have met so many 

people with different ideas and backgrounds, and I have seen myself surprised by some 

people’s thoughts and backgrounds because of subconscious biases I had . I hope for the 

future, I can become more conscious of my biases throughout my experience here and 

at the very least try to minimize their impact of how I see those around me. 

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