Going Forth

Last: it’s a word seniors know well, especially this time of the year. It’s also a word all study abroad students can relate to with bittersweet clarity in a different capacity. While I do not yet have to process saying “see you later” to the University that has become home over the last three years, the week has come to say goodbye to a wonderful semester abroad.

For a few weeks now, I have encountered “lasts” in broad, less emotionally challenging strokes: the last weekend trip. The last time stocking up on toilet paper for our flat. But this week, the concept of “last” has become more personal and more imminent. This was my last weekend in London with the people who have become like family to me here. Yesterday, I attended my last class before becoming a Notre Dame senior. This week, I will do things like have my last coffee at my favorite café, which became the site of a lot of important things like academic assignment completions, conversations with friends, and blogging sessions.

This brings me to another big last of the week: this is my last blog post on the Go Forth ND platform.

Serving as a student blogger for Campus Ministry has been one of the most transformative experiences of my time at the University Notre Dame. As a result of this blog, I have grown in my confidence as a thinker, writer, and woman in the world. I have learned to think both critically and reflectively about events happening in my life and in the world, and I have received excellent guidance, feedback, and support in preparation for and in response to the pieces that have manifested as a result of my lived experiences. One of my friends here in London likes to talk about “living fully.” To live fully according to her definition means to truly feel alive, present, and significant in the things happening in the moment with the people there with you. This blog, the people I have met as a result of writing it, and the opportunity to engage in faith curiously, intellectually, and joyfully have shown me how to live fully.

In my final post, I would like to highlight some of my favorite posts from the 54 I have written over the past two years.

Some of my favorite posts from the fall of 2014 are about the call to relationship. In On Kinship I wrote about Fr. Greg Boyle’s visit to ND. This post was followed by one about The Call to KiNDness, in which I reflected on random acts of kindness and the self-sacrificial way in which my friends laid aside their own comfort in order to help me through the Sophomore Road Trip on a freshly broken foot. These posts (and the lessons I learned as result of the events they are based on!) have been so important in forming the foundation for future posts on relationships (and future relationships themselves), such as Loving: The Brave Choice, which is a reflection on my summer as a Notre Dame Vision Mentor-In-Faith, and the recent Thank You, Study Abroad: I Believe in Soulmates. 

In posts on the topics of liturgy and sacrament, I had the opportunity to interface with incredible resources on campus as I learned more about the vibrant Church. Some of my favorites are: an investigation of the ritual of the Sign of Peace in a two-part installation consisting of "Peace Be With You…" {Part 1} and "...And With Your Spirit. {Part 2}", a look at the sacrament of Reconciliation in When Sins Are Forgiven, a reflection on Eucharistic joy in "I Want That Bread!", and an encounter with the Communion of Saints in Images of a Communion.

A few of my favorite "call to action" posts are also related to topics in the posts listed above. These are Giving Thanks: Pray Without Ceasing, Desire: An Advent-Related Tension, The Lenten Fast (why it matters and what you can do about it), and Being Ordinary. The processes of writing these posts themselves were calls to action for me that I wanted to share with the broader ND community, my family, and friends.

One of the best topics to write about as a Notre Dame student is, of course, the spirit of Notre Dame. Posts involving the ND spiritual community are some of my very favorites to write. Highlights include Made in God's Image (a conversation with a courageous fellow student who shared her battle to love herself), "I Love It Here." (an interview with a Muslim friend who majored in theology and Notre Dame), and Family is Important. (a reflection on the simple thought that the title expresses in the context of the Notre Dame family). My favorite spirit of Notre Dame post, though, is Thank You, Father Ted. This post, which was written the day after Fr. Ted Hesburgh passed away, is incredibly special to my heart, just as Fr. Ted is to that of the Notre Dame community.

The Go Forth blog has been extremely important in my own spiritual journey. It has pushed me to see my story in a new way, and to put words to significant events in my own spiritual life. It has given me the courage and the opportunity to share these words in posts such as: On Islands: Grieving and Moving Forward, And to Dust You Shall Return: Hawaii Pilgrimage 2015, Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart, The Gift of Letting It Go: A Weekend in Bergen, and In Their Steps: Holy Week 2016. 

Finally, some of the most fun posts to write (and probably some of the most fun to read!) are those that involve creative styles beyond my usual blogging voice. These posts have challenged me to find new ways to relate events and to express thoughts. Some of them include That Magic Week (a prose piece in response to a week spent with my family in the Grand Canyon), The Most Interesting Man in the World (thoughts on why a Holy Cross priest is the real most interesting man in the world), and two collaborative posts between my fellow blogger, Megan, and I: Religious: They're Just Like Us! and What Would You Ask God?.

At the risk of sounding like I am pretending to win an award and make a big speech or something along those lines, thank you. Thank you to the Campus Ministry Communications team, to the people who I have had the privilege of interviewing and photographing, to family and friends and acquaintances and strangers who have inspired me in innumerable ways to dig deeper and think bigger and live more. Thank you to Notre Dame du Lac. & thank you most of all to you, for reading my words and for sharing in this adventure.

From here, let’s go forth in hope, to set the world on fire.

Photo taken in Cinque Terre, Italy, by Ryan Leen