Capstone Integration Bossone 1 Maria Finan Moreau 29 April 2022 This is Me! For my mission statement, I wanted to organize it in a way that best conveyed the message that I wanted to share with others to describe myself. Taking the advice of Steven Covey, I decided to divide up this mission statement by each of my values (Week 13). One’s values and beliefs represent one’s goals, intentions, and hopes, so sharing my values and how I can use these values to further develop my own character within the next three years at Notre Dame is a perfect way to establish my mission. While these of course do not cover every value by which I live, I chose some that are the most ingrained within our Moreau class this year. The following are the values that I chose: a strong sense of identity, inclusion and empathy, diversity of thought, patience, self-reflection, and devotion to the lives of others. The first value that has defined much of my life is a want for a strong sense of identity. Discovering who I truly am is no easy task but I believe that it is necessary for me to live a truly fulfilling life. For the past year, I have struggled the most with two parts of my identity: my faith/spirituality and my sexual orientation. The struggle does not necessarily come from each part of my identity, but rather the way in which they can both exist in harmony with one another. As Jacob Walsh similarly explains in his piece Bossone 2 “Growing up Gay and Catholic,” I saw very few people around me who were going through a similar situation (Week 10). I have had gay friends, but they were starkly against participating in any form of organized religion, ESPECIALLY Catholicism and Christianity. I have also had Catholic “friends,” but they were straight and/or homophobic. It was one of the first times in my life when I felt unseen and alone in my experiences. However, since coming to Notre Dame, while homophobia is still prevalent, it is so refreshing to see more people here with whom I share this struggle. I hope in the next three years, I can strengthen this sense of identity that has been a point of confusion for multiple years. The second value I strive to live by is inclusion/empathy. I combined these two together because they can never be mutually exclusive; having empathy is necessary to be inclusive in your mission. As Pope Francis stated in a speech, “we can only build the future by standing together, including everyone” (Week 7). As a person who wants to facilitate this building of the future, inclusion has to be at the heart of my work. If the work that I do does not include everyone, I will not view it as successful. Even here at Notre Dame, as an American Studies and Peace Studies major and Gender Studies minor, I get to study such a variety of experiences and cultures in our world. And for as much as Notre Dame still has SO much work to do with inclusion and diversity, there are glimpses that make me proud to go here. For example, I was proud to see that a question about Dean Cole’s open letter was on Notre Dame’s application when I applied (Week 12). It shows Bossone 3 that at least Notre Dame is making an effort to include the experiences of those that are silenced in our world, and especially at a predominantly white institution. My third value is diversity of thought. This ties in nicely with my value of inclusion and empathy of others’ experiences and beliefs. Honestly, this is something that I hope to improve in the next few years. I grew up in a place where everyone came from a nearly identical background, and it has taken some adjustment to fully embrace the new world of different perspectives here at college. I have often felt the need to correct or educate people who may think differently than me, but through my philosophy class and Moreau in which we discussed epistemic bubbles, it is extremely difficult to change the beliefs of others. I would really love to think that I do not live in this bubble, but I have a feeling that naturally I might keep myself within it. Through the next few years, I seek to create more diversity in the voices and beliefs around me. My fourth value is patience. I easily struggle with this the most, as I have struggled with OCD and perfectionism for multiple years now. While this can apply to me being patient with others as well, I think it mainly serves as a reminder to be patient with myself. Pico Iyer reminds us in his piece “Why We Need to Slow Down our Lives” that it is the busiest people who need to take more breaks and be more patient with themselves. Self care is something that I have always put on the backburner but I have experienced how self destructive that can be. For the next few years, I hope that I become more patient with myself. Yet because of mental illness, I also have to be patient with myself about being patient with myself. I feel like there is a pressure to always work work work, but no one Bossone 4 also talks about the pressure to take care of yourself. There are times where I physically and mentally refuse to prioritize self care, and it feels like I have no control. Rather than forcing myself into a different lifestyle, I want to make sure I change my mentality at my own pace, so as not to put even more pressure on myself. My fifth value is self-reflection. This goes along the lines of patience, but is focused more on questioning who I want to be and what I want to do with my life. It is a question that we are asked from children: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” While it is a playful, well-intended question, it represents this societal pressure to always know where you want your life to go. However, I have learned that deep self-reflection can be such a helpful resource that I should take advantage of more often. Within our Moreau class, Fr. Michael Himes’s “Three Key Questions” have really helped me navigate not only what I want to do, but also lets me ponder my skills and how I can best harness them to help the world (Week 3). Speaking with others who I feel truly know me can also help me self-reflect more effectively (Week 5). I hope to continue questioning myself and my future and take advantage of the resources that are available, especially the Career Center and other helpful resources directly on campus (Week 4). Lastly, my sixth value is my devotion to the lives of others. This is an overarching theme that I have made an effort to include in every area of my life, and it is a value that I hope will continue to be foundational in my professional efforts. At some point in my life, I want to become a professor so I can help a future generation of thinkers and innovators learn more about a world of peace. Two articles from this Moreau class have helped me Bossone 5 question the way in which I interact with others, and have encouraged me to think more deeply about the benefits and consequences of the language that I use (Week 6 and 9). Not only do I want to live with a devotion to others but I also want to surround myself with similarly-driven people. I truly believe that an individual can make a difference in this world and someone that has inspired me in that sense is Fr. Ted (Week 2). His work proves that my theory is correct: even though we live in a world of nearly eight billion people, one person’s dedication to demanding change in this world is powerful and ought not be ignored. Bossone 6 Works Cited Week 1: Pico Iyer, “Why We Need to Slow Down our Lives” https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-need-a-secular-sabbath/ Week 2: Hesburgh Movie Week 3: Fr. Michael Himes, "Three Key Questions" Week 4: Undergraduate Career Services, “Navigating Your Career Journey” https://undergradcareers.nd.edu/navigating-your-career-journey---moreau/ Week 6: Tasha Eurich, “The right way to be introspective (yes, there’s a wrong way)” https://ideas.ted.com/the-right-way-to-be-introspective-yes-theres-a-wrong-way/ Week 7: Pope Francis, “Why the only future worth building includes everyone” https://www.ted.com/talks/his_holiness_pope_francis_why_the_only_future_worth_buildi ng_includes_everyone/transcript Fr. Boyle, “Tattoos on the Heart” Week 9: Professor Steve Reifenberg, “Teaching Accompaniment: A Learning Journey Together” https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hZbSdVImfn2hZDqMrdL96dZCNOtHuf6C-lg3sH-R s30/edit Week 10: Jacob Walsh, "Growing up Gay and Catholic” https://grottonetwork.com/keep-the-faith/community/reflective-narrative-about-being-gay -and-catholic/?utm_source=moreau&utm_medium=class&utm_campaign=spring_2022 https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-need-a-secular-sabbath/ https://undergradcareers.nd.edu/navigating-your-career-journey---moreau/ 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 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hZbSdVImfn2hZDqMrdL96dZCNOtHuf6C-lg3sH-Rs30/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hZbSdVImfn2hZDqMrdL96dZCNOtHuf6C-lg3sH-Rs30/edit https://grottonetwork.com/keep-the-faith/community/reflective-narrative-about-being-gay-and-catholic/?utm_source=moreau&utm_medium=class&utm_campaign=spring_2022 https://grottonetwork.com/keep-the-faith/community/reflective-narrative-about-being-gay-and-catholic/?utm_source=moreau&utm_medium=class&utm_campaign=spring_2022 Bossone 7 Week 11: Hidden Brain Media, “Passion Isn’t Enough” https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/passion-isnt-enough/ Week 12: Dean G. Marcus Cole, “I am George Floyd. Except, I can breathe. And I can do something.” https://law.nd.edu/news-events/news/dean-g-marcus-cole-i-am-george-floyd-except-i-can -breathe-and-i-can-do-something/ Week 13: Steven Covey, “Crafting Your Personal Mission Statement” https://www.jmu.edu/osarp/programs/Mentor/Mentors/MissionStatementResources/missi on-creation-Senge-Covey.pdf https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/passion-isnt-enough/ https://law.nd.edu/news-events/news/dean-g-marcus-cole-i-am-george-floyd-except-i-can-breathe-and-i-can-do-something/ https://law.nd.edu/news-events/news/dean-g-marcus-cole-i-am-george-floyd-except-i-can-breathe-and-i-can-do-something/ https://www.jmu.edu/osarp/programs/Mentor/Mentors/MissionStatementResources/mission-creation-Senge-Covey.pdf https://www.jmu.edu/osarp/programs/Mentor/Mentors/MissionStatementResources/mission-creation-Senge-Covey.pdf