Microsoft Word - Integration 1.docx


How Can I Grow Over the Next Four Years? 
 

I believe that I grow as a person by making connections and getting to know as many 
people as possible. I have grown up in a very homogeneous community, everyone I knew looked 
similar to myself, had similar beliefs, and had similar life stories. Naturally, I assumed that 
everyone should believe the way I did and never really knew what diversity was, until I went to 
work as a Senate Page. I realized that these other students from across the country were very 
different from what I assumed about them. As Adichie said in her Ted Talk in week 7, I had one 
story that I knew about them. I believed them to be diametrically opposed to the values and 
culture of people like me. However, I realized that once I got to know them, I had so much more 
in common with them than I could have ever imagined. I made lifelong friendships as a Senate 
Page, because I focused on making connections and getting to know people for who they are. I 
now understand that “there is never a single story about any place” (The Danger of a Single 
Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Moreau FYE Week 7). 
 
 This outlook has changed the way I seek to associate with people around me. I seek to get 
to know as many people as possible, and for them to truly get to know me. In Dr. Brown’s Ted 
Talk she mentions that people who have a strong sense of belonging were “willing to let go of 
who they thought they should be in order to be who they were” (The Power of Vulnerability by 
Dr. Brene Brown – Moreau FYE Week 1). When I make connections with people, I make it my 
goal to be my authentic self because I shouldn’t pretend to be someone, I’m not just to be friends 
with someone. If someone cannot accept me for who I am, or I cannot accept someone else for 
who he or she is, then neither of us has any business being in a relationship together. 
 
 I also think this outlook ties into the idea of how I want people to think about me. In his 
Ted Talk, David Brooks talks about our resume versus eulogy virtues, our marketplace quality 
and what people say about our character. He says that most of us would agree that “The eulogy 
virtues are the most important of the virtues” (Should You Live for Your Resume or Your 
Eulogy? by David Brooks – Moreau FYE Week 2). In making connections with other people at a 
deep level, I hope to be known as someone who lives my friends and family up, as someone who 
people want to have around, and as someone who makes the days of the people around him 
better. I think that by pursuing this end I can ensure that I both benefit the people around me and 
benefit from my relationships with them. 
 
 Forming deep connections with people helps me to ensure that my relationships are 
healthy. As I said earlier, I do not pursue relationships with people if I don’t feel that we can 
connect at a deeper level. One way to identify a toxic relationship is that “They don’t really listen 
to you” (5 Signs You're in a Toxic Relationship by Olivia T. Taylor – Moreau FYE Week 4). I 
am a big fan of talking to people, so if I cannot have meaningful conversations with someone, I 
will not spend much time around that person. A personal need that I have is to connect with the 
people I am around, this forces me to choose friends who I feel can lift me up, and not those who 
will tear me down or hold me back. 
 
 I definitely believe that my upbringing has shaped my worldview, the culture of West 
Texas has significantly influenced my personality and beliefs. In my poem for Week 6, I wrote, 
“I am from a land of hard work and honesty where a man is as good as his word” (Where I’m 



From by  – Moreau FYE Week 6). I feel that this emphasizes my life code. I 
believe strongly in being honest and kind to the people around me, and I believe that no matter 
what I do, God sees it, so I should do the right thing, simply because it is the right thing to do. 
This is often very difficult, but I know that when God asks me why I didn’t do the right thing, “It 
was too hard,” will not be an acceptable answer. 
 
 One of the biggest aspects of our community back home was faith. Although, most of my 
friends were not Catholic, almost everyone I knew was Christian. Everybody in the community 
attended some church on Sunday, and the most common question to ask someone you just met 
was: “What church do you go to?” Everybody around me cared a lot about their faith and wanted 
to live good, Christian lives. One of the things that drew me to Notre Dame was the faith 
community; I wanted to continue the experience I had at home, and continue to focus on God. 
David Fagerberg, when he was speaking about how we use spirituality as a light, said that if the 
light was working correctly, we should “be able to see the real world around [us], and the 
neighbor with whom [we] should be concerned” (Faith Brings Light to a Dark World by David 
Fagerberg – Moreau FYE Week 3). I want to focus on using faith as a framework with which I 
can keep my focus on the things that are truly important, not distractions, such as money, which 
turn our eyes away from God and towards evil. Faith provides me a moral framework with which 
I can focus on the world around me and myself. 
 
 Another deep-seeded attribute of myself, is my love of learning. I love to learn new 
things about the world around me and the events of the day. One of the things I value about the 
community here, is its commitment to combining learning and spirituality into overall personal 
growth. In Fr. Grove’s speech, he emphasized the importance that Moreau and the Congregation 
of the Holy Cross put on the combination of faith and knowledge, saying “both [blind faith and 
blind reason] are equally abhorrent” (Two Notre Dames: Your Holy Cross Education by Fr. 
Kevin Grove – Moreau FYE Week 5). One of my goals in my time in college is to learn about 
the world and use my faith as a framework through which to view the world. I feel that 
knowledge guided by faith can be one of the most effective tools for making the world a better 
place. 
 
 I believe that by making connections with as many people as I can and maintaining my 
commitment to my faith, I can grow exceptionally well throughout my next 4 years at Notre 
Dame.