Awareness of nature’s seasons – their ebb and flow, their hues and tones – is the result of patient and careful observation. Appreciation of personal growth – the development of the intellect, the attunement of the spiritual senses – is the fruit of an education that is expansive, deep, and fundamentally contemplative. This is the kind of experience we seek to provide at Notre Dame, and it is our hope that the process will begin in a student’s very first year.
At the end of a semester, the sense of fatigue and accomplishment are palpable. With the Holiday Season upon us, many of you will be relaxing, spending time with family and friends, and sharing fond memories of your first term at Notre Dame. I encourage you to make the most of such special moments. Enjoy and cherish them.
However, as the old year wends its way toward 2009, I invite you to journey within, to look back at your first fifteen weeks as an undergraduate. Think about what you’ve learned – within and outside of the classroom. Consider the ways you’ve grown. Reflect upon the courses you’ve taken. Take stock of your successes and setbacks. Revisit your aspirations.
As part of this exercise in introspection, I encourage you to write, and send to your First Year of Studies advisor (via email) – a brief meditation on the aforementioned issues. It need not be more than one or two pages in length. This essay will be a great help to your advisors and me as we assist you in working toward the realization of your academic goals. If received on or before January 12th, advisors can read them before meeting with you in the spring.
At first glance, writing an assignment of this kind may seem like little more than “busy work,” a needless distraction from more important activities. However, seen from a more global vantage point, this is an exercise in exploration and contemplation – two disciplines that foster the capacity to dream.
The late George Basil Cardinal Hume once posited that, “A university is a place of dreams.” If such is the case – and I believe it is – then introspection provides the poetics through which such dreams are made real.
Oratio sed
Exploratio – two keys
Dreams, hopes revealing
(The Rev.) Hugh R. Page, Jr., DMin, PhD
Dean, First Year of Studies
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