Matteo Pietro Pecchio Moreau First Year Experience November 26, 2021 What have I encountered and how will I respond? Table of Contents Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 2 What was once ambiguous or vague that now holds greater clearance? .................................. 2 What was previously “black and white” that is now more ambiguous, nuanced, or complicated? ......................................................................................................................... 3 What has grown in importance as a result of my Notre Dame journey thus far? ..................... 4 What are some of the most important questions I have asked this semester? ......................... 5 Introduction This is the second integration essay for Moreau. This means that the first semester of my Notre Dame experience is reaching its end. During this semester I can say that I have been through fantastic moments, where school was going great and where I was able to keep in almost perfect balance the famous triangle of university (in the picture). However, there were times, mainly toward the end of the semester, where my motivation wasn’t at his peak, and this impacted mainly my grades and my extracurricular activities. Overall, I can say that I am pretty happy about this semester went, and I hope to finish it well with my finals. In this essay, I will respond to four main questions that can summarize my growth here in Notre Dame, and I hope I will be able to capture all the details of this growth. What was once ambiguous or vague that now holds greater clearance? “I’ve run a game on everybody, and they are going to find me out” (“What is imposter syndrome” by Elizabeth Cox – Moreau FYE week 9). I want to start with this quote, by Elizabeth Cox. This quote explains the feeling that a lot of people have felt here in Notre Dame, which is part of a syndrome called “Imposter Syndrome”. When experiencing this syndrome, you feel like the others are much better than you, and that you don’t deserve to be in the same environment. I wanted to start with this because this is one of the first feeling I have felt when I arrived. I saw all the sophomores and juniors handling their work easily while I was struggling to keep up with just a few papers and some readings. I had to drop a class, as I was not performing well, and that only increased this feeling I had. However, with time and after some good grades, I realized that a lot of freshmen were in my same position, struggling, and “fighting” with all their resources to do well. I adapted to this hard-working environment, and now I can clearly say that I am not worse than anyone else on campus (except for some geniuses, but they are an exception). While this statement might sound arrogant, I think that believing it was a game changer for me. Understanding that with hard work, we can all get As, do extracurricular, and even apply for jobs, gave me an incentive. And even in times where I was feeling down, I could always get some help from the exceptional people here at ND. Therefore, in one sentence, I can now say that no one here is an imposter, and that if you are here, it means that you have the skills to be here and do well, you just need to believe it. What was previously “black and white” that is now more ambiguous, nuanced, or complicated? The words black and white in the Heading are somewhat ironic, as this paragraph will talk about race. First of all, I have to admit that my growth in this field was possible because of two protagonists: My Moreau class and my roommate. One might be what is not clear to me about races, as racism is clearly a bad thing and there can’t be an argument about it. Well, let me introduce the quote, and then let me explain. The quote I decided to include for this paragraph is “The story of race has many voices; understanding them begins with listening” (“With Voices true” – Moreau FYE Week 11). Why this quote? Very simple, because listening is one of the things I promised to myself to do here in Notre Dame. I was lucky enough to have a black person as a roommate, which made the listening “job” much easier, as I would just need to ask questions, which he was happy to answer. Therefore, if I listened, why is racism now more complicated to me than before. The reason is that before I just took it as a fact, learnt the very basics, and that was it. However, this semester I was able to listen to a person that has experienced the race issue his whole life, and this made me realize how little I knew about the matter. How there are a lot of details that an average white guy like me never understood. This made the whole race issue a lot more complex to me. However, now I can say that when I listen about these issues, I am a little better at understanding the bigger picture, and this is what makes it complicated. What has grown in importance as a result of my Notre Dame journey thus far? “A piece is more beautiful for having been broken” (“Women find healing through Kintsugi Workshop” by Kirsten Helgeson – Moreau FYE Week 10). I decided to take this quote because it reminds me of vulnerability. Vulnerability is something that increased in importance to me in the last few months as I understood that is crucial to be open about myself. This way it is much easier to create meaningful relationships and to ask for help when needed. I believe I am not overstating when I say that vulnerability can be crucial for a college student like me, who lives far from home and who has left all of his closest friends to come here. The reason why I say that vulnerability has grown in importance is that before coming here, I didn’t even know what vulnerability was and I always played the part of the tough guy, who is always there for people but rarely ask for any help. What are some of the most important questions I have asked this semester? To conclude, I am going to explain what the most important questions are I have faced this semester. I want to start with this quote about education, which is in fact my first question: What goals do I want to achieve from my experience here in Notre Dame. The quote goes like this: “[Education] is the art of helping young people to completeness” (“Holy Cross and Christian Education” – Moreau FYE Week 12). I believe that my completeness will be reached, at least in terms of a college experience, when I will have understood what I satisfies me, in terms of relationships, studies and career. Right now, I believe I have all the answers to these three different fields, being: honest relationships built on trust, Finance and French (it’s weird how I am leaving out economics, my major), and a career in financial services (probably starting in Investment Banking) that will be at its top when I’ll be the CEO in a medium/big company. However, these answers (except for the first one), are not very, pass me the word, “Notre- Damy”. This is why I am going to stay very open about what future will bring me, as I understand that right now, I don’t need to have more than a very general idea, and that I am only at the beginning of my journey, because Notre Dame is not a place you have come to, but it is place to go from. Introduction What was once ambiguous or vague that now holds greater clearance? What was previously “black and white” that is now more ambiguous, nuanced, or complicated? What has grown in importance as a result of my Notre Dame journey thus far? What are some of the most important questions I have asked this semester?