Who are you? What makes you an individual? Where do you come from? Where have you been in your life? What do you treasure and value about your life? What is being a barrier from keeping you from living in the moment? These are all questions that help you evaluate and come to the conclusion of truly finding yourself.

A few weeks ago, five of my peers and I attended a Catholic Relief Services training session at Notre Dame. (Their campus is breath taking, filled with so much beauty and energy. We could have spent the day exploring their campus. We were all mesmerized at the activity and community there.) The training was about how do we really solve problems in the world. We as humans are the problem and are constantly creating chaos (wait, maybe that is just the battle of Trump and Clinton doing that), but we are also the solution to the issues we create. As a group, we discussed how we could eliminate human trafficking, climate control, and migration in the United States. We are currently in the process of educating the Siena Heights community on these issues. However before any of solutions and inquiries are made, we want to share our story. We want to show others we are passionate about real issues and controversies in our society. By sharing your story, people can relate and make connections to you. Our goal is to share our stories, then hear others. This is how we want to build community and generate awareness on campus.

Knowing yourself is one of life’s greatest endeavors because once you know yourself, life is real and you can create and be with the people who value and are the most like you. Live your life how you entail. Write a mission statement and have goals for you. It helps. For an assignment, we were asked to write a personal mission statement. It was one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do because I realized I do not know myself. So, I made a list (I love making lists. Basically my life is a giant list. And Post-it notes are one thing I cannot live without.) The list was sectioned off into different areas: goals, where I am now in my life, what I enjoy doing with my time, who has been an influence on my life, what I value, how I can be a leader, and what is in the way of all of keeping me from living. It was a really good exercise because it helped me physically see where I am currently and how I can fix what is going wrong, but I have to find the solutions by standing up for what I believe in and staying true to what I am ultimately seeking in life.

People say life is an uphill battle, but it really is an endless climb on a mountain towards eternal greatness. There are ups and downs, but then there are also flat and content parts of life. Live your life according to your will, inspire others by sharing your story, seek adventure, and enjoy. Life is too short to not make a difference and find solutions to the issues we have.