Capstone Integration Francesca’s Guide to a Life Well Lived Everything that we have learned in Moreau has been in order to help us live a life well lived. Every week is another step towards that goal. I am so fortunate to have been able to be in such a great Moreau class that truly inspired me to live a life well lived. Thanks to Nhat and my whole Moreau class I now know what defines a life well lived and how I can best strive to live my own life that way. Our first week of Moreau this semester was about slowing down. Life moves pretty fast for people and things like stress and anxiety are becoming way more common than they used to be. It seems as time goes on things like this are becoming more prevalent. I think we all just need to slow down. Everyone has so much pressure on them to be successful and to do amazing things. The pressure of always needing to be moving can be detrimental to someone’s health. Sometimes I wish we could just press pause on life. I am lucky that in my life I haven’t had too many experiences that have put a lot of stress on my life. I tend to be ok with slowing down but I might take that too far at times and just do nothing too often. In order to live a life well lived I just need to get to that middle ground (“Why We Need to Slow Down Our LIves” by Pico Iyer - Moreau FYE Week 1). Father Ted Hesburgh is such a huge inspiration for a life well lived. If I had to pick one person from Notre Dame whom I know lived their life to its fullest potential and in the best way possible it would be Fr. Hesburgh. He is truly an inspiration in every aspect of life. From the way he delt with politics to the way he delt with students Fr. Hesburgh did everything with kindness and humility. If I really want to know how to live a life well lived I should really just look at his life. Although I don’t know if I will do things nearly as great as Fr. Hesburgh did, any little thing https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-need-a-secular-sabbath/ I do to be more like him can contribute to living a life well lived (“Hesburgh” film by Jerry Barca and Christine O’Malley - Moreau FYE Week 2). The best life well lived is one that is lived with joy. Not just happiness, but joy. “Happiness changes from moment to moment, day to day. Joy, on the other hand, is much deeper and much more central, it comes from within, and it’s a genuine rightness of how one lives one’s life” (“Three Key Questions" by Fr. Michael Himes - Moreau FYE Week 3). A true life well lived can be lived with a good mix of joy and happiness. It’s okay to not always feel happiness. It’s a fleeting feeling. To live one’s life with joy is to live a life well lived. One week of Moreau was focused on career development. I understand that discerning my career will help me better understand my life and how to live it well, but spending a whole week of Moreau on it seems unnecessary. I’m a freshman in college. I don’t know exactly what I want to do with my life and at this point in my life I don’t need to. Maybe Moreau should focus on how different careers can contribute to a life well lived instead. Whatever future career I have in business I hope to do what makes me happy but most importantly I hope to do what’s right because that is how my life can be best lived ("Exploring a Life Well-Lived - Career Development Reflection” Meruelo Family Center for Career Development - Moreau FYE Week 4). When determining if you are living your life well, it’s important to listen to other perspectives. Sometimes you can overlook something you are doing because to you it is so normal or maybe you’re even in denial. In Moreau class, we had to interview someone in order to learn more about ourselves. This activity was so important because it gave me an outside perspective on how I was projecting myself to others. To live a life well lived it’s important to be presenting yourself in a positive way. Life isn’t well lived if you are making people hate you. https://notredame.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=10159379-7eca-4549-8581-ab9500c9ecd9 https://canvas.nd.edu/courses/39639/files/472889/download?download_frd=1 https://nd.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0AGRyH4SWX0bz38 https://nd.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0AGRyH4SWX0bz38 When I surveyed my friend Abby, it greatly helped me improve the way I was living my life (“Discerning a Life Well-Lived Discernment Conversation Activity” - Moreau FYE Week 5). You don’t have to go through some great tragedy and have some sort of revelation to start living a life well lived. Dr. Jihoon Kim, a man who became paralyzed in a snowboarding accident, may have done that, but that doesn’t mean I have to (“Five Minutes” Grotto Network - Moreau FYE Week 6). Obviously my life hasn’t been perfect, but I am so incredibly privileged. I mean I go to Notre Dame. But just because I come from privilege does not mean I don’t know how to care for others. To live a life well lived in the best way I just need to have morals, compassion, goals, etc. I don’t have to go through trauma to have those things. I just have to learn and grow. Of course inclusion is important in a life well lived. You’re not living your life well if you’re being a bad person, and excluding people makes you a bad person. Pope Francis said it best when he said “we all need each other, none of us is an island, an autonomous and independent "I," separated from the other, and we can only build the future by standing together, including everyone” (“Why the Only Future Worth Building Includes Everyone” Pope Francis - Moreau FYE Week 7). A life well lived includes relationships. Inclusion isn’t just not excluding people. It’s about forming solid relationships with anyone and everyone and just being that good person that everyone needs in their lives. Sometimes all you need to do is be that person that people go to for accompaniment (“Teaching Accompaniment: A Learning Journey Together” by Professor Steve Reifenberg - Moreau FYE Week 9). The last 3 weeks of Moreau were about inclusion and honestly I don’t want to write a separate paragraph for each one. They all basically talked about the same thing with different articles. Yes, to live a life well lived you can’t discriminate. Duh. Just be a good person and don’t https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yZ7hqvx-u4EuW2nlK-fRbWFiurQm1mZv_KpoeeiN4So/edit https://grottonetwork.com/make-an-impact/transform/why-does-god-allow-suffering/?utm_source=moreau&utm_medium=class&utm_campaign=spring_2022 https://www.ted.com/talks/his_holiness_pope_francis_why_the_only_future_worth_building_includes_everyone/transcript https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hZbSdVImfn2hZDqMrdL96dZCNOtHuf6C-lg3sH-Rs30/edit?usp=sharing be racist, homophobitc, and all that stuff. Honestly if you can’t do that stuff you have a lot more to worry about than leaving a life well lived. Maybe try being a decent person first (Moreau FYE Weeks 10, 11, & 12). Basically to sum it up: lot’s of factors go into living a life well lived. What’s most important is that you are living a life that you want to be living. Key factors to a life well lived include: slowing down at life, being like Father Ted Hesburgh, living with joy, choosing a good career, thinking of how others perceive you, building good relationships, and simply being a decent person. Although I know my life will be nowhere close to perfect, I do know that I can always try my best to live a life well lived. And if at any time I find myself struggling, I should just find my way to Duncan Hall and see what Nhat Nguyen has to say.