"What would you tell your freshman self?"
"Get to know everyone that you can. Even the people you don't think you need to know: get to know them. You works so hard here to make friends, to make connections. You're so invested...and then, after four short years, your time is up. But that shouldn't stop you from going through it, and loving it."

"We were just talking about when we first dropped her off at Notre Dame. She was quiet, reserved. I don't want to say immature. She just hadn't grown into who she is now. We're so proud of the young lady she's become."
"I remember talking to her rector during her Frosh-O, and the ARs that year. Their feats seemed incredible: things like building a school, curing diseases, doing mission work in impoverished countries. I thought, 'Our daughter is high-achieving, but she's not like that.' The past four years have shown me differently. She's done research, grown as a person, and now she's been accepted into medical school. It all happened; you just have to trust the place."

"It means everything to me, to be graduating from Notre Dame. I'm the first person in my family to graduate from college."

"From the start of your freshman year, it's important to prioritize relationships. I came into freshman year focused on academics, success, achieving. But I should have been focusing on relationships, and I didn't do that nearly enough during my first two years. Because when it comes down to it, at graduation, the most important part is not your GPA or your cords, but the people who are standing by you."

"We'd love to be on your blog! Now the world can know how much we support Dom!"
"He's a really cool guy."

I'd also like to add that this family, throughout the 700+ names read at Arts and Letters Commencement, clapped enthusiastically for every name called whose family wasn't present to cheer for them.

              "Has Notre Dame been a good fit for your grandson, now that he's graduating?"
"Absolutely. In high school, he had great ACT and SAT scores, all of those tests. A good academic career. He was academically prepared for Notre Dame, and he's kept it up. He's always been successful. Marching band has been very important to him."
"We didn't pressure him to go to Notre Dame, but it's true that we encouraged him. And we were certainly delighted four years ago, when he made the decision to attend."

                  "Who is someone who has inspired you during your time at Notre Dame?"
"There are so many. Hmm. If I had to narrow it down, I'd say Patricia Champion, my biology research professor. I worked with her researching tuberculosis. She's so hardworking and dedicated. And she wants her students to have a genuine interest in the subject matter."

               "What would you tell your freshman self?"
"Sleep is a valuable commodity. Ration it wisely. And one more thing: take more pictures."

                 "How long did they take to make?"
"Mine was puzzle pieces and came together very quickly."
"It was just a few hours. I designed and cut all the pieces with the 3D laser printer."

"It's so hard to get kids' attention in line! Two seconds without something to do and they're looking at their phones. And I'm over here yelling, 'Miss! Miss!', trying to figure out how she wants her omelette. I could go on and on about it."
             "May I take your picture?"
"I don't want to take the picture alone. Hold on a second..." (He then proceeded to wrangle his friend from cooking eggs behind him.) "This here's my best friend, Rob."
(We ended the interview with a fist bump.)

"We're just visiting. Are you sure you want to talk to us?"
               "Absolutely! Who are you here to see graduate?"
"He's our son. She can explain it better."
"He's my husband. He just graduated from the 2-year MBA program."

"Spring of freshman year, I declared a theology minor. Then the next year I declared a supplementary major. And then the next year, it was my second full major, next to my math major. I want to address all the women who don't feel welcome in the church, and at least in the traditional church they understand in their direct experience, that there are tons of women out there working on theology explicitly for those reasons, and not to give up because it's happening, the conversation's going on right now. That's my message to the world: people are thinking about that. Women are not at the back of everyone's minds. They're at the forefront. Women care about them. Women are actively trying to dignify other women in the church: to play a fundamental role, as fellow human beings who reflect God in their physical beings."
"She was always hesitant to question or object as a child. It was only when she reached college that she started thinking critically about her faith, and about society as a whole."
"My mom has always been a person of very few prejudices. Growing up, I felt more 'traditional' than she. While they obviously shouldn't be separated, for a while, it was as though I represented faith, and she represented works."
"I always thought to myself, at the end of the day, who are we helping? Are we acting in the image of Jesus? That's where the heart of my spirituality lies."
"I'm hoping that Pope Francis chooses a female cardinal. You don't technically have to be an ordained priest to be a cardinal, although traditionally most of them are ordained priests. Because then a woman's voice could be directly inserted into the realm of creating theological doctrines. Attention to women is absolutely present in the Catholic Church. It's a hot topic now in academic theology; but not all laypeople know that. And that's something that I think will be apparent over time, just by trickling down. But it's also something I'd love for everyone to know now."
"I'm so proud of her. She's such an accomplished young lady."
"And my mom's also a very accomplished young lady."

Congratulations, class of 2014!

"He graduated from Notre Dame last year; I'm graduating from St. Mary's this week. We were in band together. He was always that mysterious, attractive drummer. We're getting married next year. He's a bandie, an army guy, and really smart. He's everything I've ever dreamed."

"So much is special about her. Everything. More than I could explain."

"I'm a professor at Mendoza College of Business and the director of the Center for Business Communication. On weekends, I'm also an usher at the Basilica. A few years back, the head of campus ministry asked for volunteers to be ushers. Nobody else stepped up except me, and I've stuck with it ever since."
             "What's the most challenging part of being an usher?"
"Reinventing the process every week. As it was today, we normally have two to four ushers every week. But on big mass days, like football weekends, midnight vigil, and Easter, we need twelve or more for the crowd. So for each mass, we ask some members of the congregation to be temporary ushers, we train them briefly, and work with them for the duration of that mass. It starts all over again when the next mass starts."

"This is my first game as Leprechaun. Next year, I'll be doing soccer and hockey games."
               "When you started freshman year, did you plan to be the Leprechaun?"
"Not at all. It's just something that kind of happened. Everything fell into place. But it's amazing and it's just the first day."

"I go to Ball State; my grandpa and cousin went to Notre Dame. My grandpa actually only went for one year before he was drafted by the military. He loves to brag that he only paid $500 for that year. I haven't been to a football game yet, but I hope to this fall! My grandpa was an usher for something like 30 years. He's been to more games than he can count."
              "What about Notre Dame draws fans who don't attend college here?"
"It's a family. Just stepping onto campus, you're immediately invited into the family. You feel at home. So then it becomes tradition, to be a part of this family, to root for the Irish no matter what."

Seen on North Quad: Keenan Slip'N Slide.

"I grew up in a single-parent household. It was always my mom and me--and, of course, I was a Mama's Boy. There were gaps in my life where a father figure would have been. I couldn't drive stick shift. I didn't know how to tie a tie for prom. Don't get me wrong, I love my mom. She's very much a girly girl, though. When it came time to look at colleges, I was set on going to UT Austin. They had a good engineering program, all my friends were going there, and it was close to home. But then Notre Dame reached out to me. They weren't just catering to me; they focused on my mother as well. That struck me: that Notre Dame was not just about an individual, but about family, my mom included.
"Being at Notre Dame has meant time spent in an all-male dorm, around kids who had that whole-family experience--and creating a new family here. Looking back to freshman me, I would tell him, 'Don't worry. Notre Dame is going to take care of you.' I've learned what it means to be a man, what it means to take responsibility, what it means to grow. And of course it's still far-off, but when the time comes, I honestly do feel prepared to be that man, that father figure, to my own family someday."

(Note: this is the first interview that has ever made me cry.)

"I'm from St. Louis."
"And I'm from Ireland."
"She's the real Irish."
"My greatest struggle right now is finals for sure. Then packing and leaving. Getting a present for my mother when I have approximately 2 cents in my bank account."
"When I got back at the beginning of the year, I was feeling a little homesick. Because there's snow everywhere around here, and we don't have that back home. I was at work, talking with my coworkers about how, while I love Notre Dame, I just wanted to go back home. And then someone from the Observer came in for a question-of-the-day. And guess what the question was: 'What is your favorite thing about being back?' So I had to think about it for a little, but I ended up saying, 'Being back at Starbucks.' But they misquoted me! They had me as saying, 'Having Starbucks again.' No way! I could get that at home! It was being with my coworkers and working that was refreshing to me."

"Honestly, I think there's a jealousy of Zahm that comes with the territory."
"98% of Zahm residents last year said their community experience was excellent or good. We're a community. And I don't think we're a different breed from other dorms. We're freer. We can be ourselves, come up with harebrained schemes, be silly, have fun, and people will look at us and say, 'Oh, they're from Zahm.'"
"It really means that I can be myself without being judged. That's what Zahm's about."

"Like most international students, I hadn't been to the States very many times before coming to Notre Dame. The one time I visited, it was on the east coast for an invention competition among various high schools."
                   "What did you invent?"
"We worked with bicycles. Most bicycles have a triangular frame--and as you've probably seen here, they get stolen often. So we designed a bike whose triangular frame opened up, which meant you could lock your bike frame itself onto a bike rack, rather than looping a lock through the frame and onto the rack. We even visited a bicycle factory, designed the bicycle, and saw it come to life."
                   "On a different note: if Notre Dame could do something differently, what would you suggest?"
"Learning about Catholicism. Yes, Notre Dame is Catholic, and yes, 80% of students are Catholic, but 20% of us are not. For the majority of the university, everyone has grown up knowing Catholic traditions, so most of it is assumed. But I know very little about Catholic traditions. So things like Ash Wednesday, and meatless Fridays during Lent, were confusing and surprising to me. I had to figure out what they meant only after they happened. So some education on these basic traditions of Catholicism would be appreciated."

"I think a lot of people are discouraged from doing both band and engineering, especially chemical engineering, because they're both such big time commitments. But they've honestly been two of the greatest decisions I've made here. There's a community of around eight band seniors who are chemical engineers, and we've bonded together over band and our major. When the band was preparing for the game in Ireland, it was fall of our junior year, which is the toughest academic time for chemical engineers. We had two-a-day band practices. We didn't get to homework until at least 11. So the chemical engineers would sit in the basement of LaFun and grumble about our homework--but it united us at the same time. I think those few weeks were really what brought us together."
               "As a senior, what would you tell your freshman self on her first day of college?"
"Don't be afraid to not do things. If that makes sense. I came to college assuming I'd do everything--study abroad, be an RA, take on responsibilities from everywhere. It was really my junior year when I realized that it was okay to turn down some opportunities and pick up others. You learn more about who you are as you progress through college, and you can then make decisions accordingly.
"And another thing: I'd say to always look at the dome when you're on Notre Dame Avenue. I run up and down Notre Dame Ave when I'm training for the Holy Half, and sometimes I'll make my rounds and realize I didn't even look at the dome once. It's something we should be conscious not to take for granted: we're so blessed to have things like the dome, the basilica, the grotto."

"People say, 'You do such wonderful things in your work in prisons.' But it's not me. It's the Holy Spirit. I have a theory that when we pass, God's not going to say, 'What did you do?' Because he knows. He's all-knowing. He's going to say, 'Who did you bring with you?'
"You don't decide your life's purpose; you discover it. Your purpose is not your vocation--and mine's been as a lawyer, the dean of the Notre Dame law school, the president of Notre Dame in Australia, and now as a priest; no, your purpose is not what you do, but how and why you do it."
                 "Students volunteering in the criminal justice system often feel as though they're not making an impact. Any words of wisdom for us?"
"May I tell a story? I'm a storyteller. Whether it's in Westville or in Michigan City, I am most commonly spending time one-on-one speaking with inmates. A while back, I visited the psych ward, where I spoke with a man who was on suicide watch. He had nothing in his solitary cell--only a blanket and a pillow. It was a brief visit, we chatted, and when I was about to leave, he said, 'Father, I really appreciate you spending time to talk with me. So I'd like to give you a present.' And I was confused. He had nothing besides his blanket and pillow in his cell. I said, 'It's fine, really. I don't need anything.' But he insisted, 'My parents taught me to say thank you by giving a gift. Really, I insist.' And again, I said, 'Thank you, but I don't need anything.'
"But he went back to his cot, reached under his pillow, and pulled out a package of graham crackers. He must have saved them from his lunch. And he gave them to me. It was all he had in the world, and he gave them to me just for spending a few minutes with him. I held those thinking, this is the story of the widow's mite. And I still have that package of graham crackers sitting by my bedside as a reminder. An act of love, no matter how small it appears initially, can ultimately mean something significant to another."

 "We just got back from playing mud volleyball at Muddy Sunday."
                    "And was it worth it?"
"YEAH!"

"We're filming a video for a project for our French class."
"The class is not just about learning the language--it's also about conversation. So the video discusses controversial issues. Stuff like gender equality, immigration."
"In French, of course."
"Is your blog on tumblr? I'm all about tumblr."
"Well, what do you guys think? Are we done?"
"I think that's a wrap."

               "What does the regatta mean to Fisher?"
"It's really the epitome of the unity of the dorm. Fisher's a relatively small dorm. This is a way of enhancing and showing our brotherhood."
"Compared to other schools, it's not always easy to just let go here, you know? So for a weekend, everyone hands out, dresses up, dances to music, cheers on their dorms. Everyone from Fisher--and friends from other dorms--comes out to spend the day at the regatta. It's a very specific and unique time of unity."
"There's an entire Regatta Week at Fisher leading up to the regatta itself. Especially since we have had issues regarding our rector recently, the regatta has been an opportunity for the Fisher brotherhood to stand as one and to provide support for one another. It's much more than just a race, especially to us."

"My friends did my hair. Yesterday it was along the lines of an afro. Then this morning, they shaved the sides. They used a bunch of products, but it wouldn't stand up. So they ended up using Elmer's glue and cutting a bunch of it off to get it to be a proper mohawk. The perfect hair for the Fisher Regatta and then the Goo Goo Dolls concert. Eventually it's gonna get cut off, though, and I'll be bald."
                "Everyone was very impressed with your regatta finish: paddling a single barrel in the lake by yourself, still smoking your cigar. They thought it was classy."
"Classy? Really? Hey, that's good to hear. I was thinking of a different word for it myself. Do you want the cigar in the picture?"

Seen by Washington Hall.

Seen at St. Mary's Lake.

Seen inside Cavanaugh: the mystery of the returned Leo. A cutout of Leonardo diCaprio from The Great Gatsby was present at Cavanaugh's fall Gatsby SYR, but was kidnapped by an unknown person by the end of the dance. He re-appeared recently at 1 am, taped to the door of Cavanaugh with a mysterious added note (and an appropriate nod to The Great Gatsby).

"We're from New York. Our son, who's a senior, is in the opera, which falls on the same weekend as the Fisher Regatta every year. So this is our fourth trip out to these events."
                  "How have you seen your son grow over the past four years here?"
"There's a certain...respect and authenticity about the company that kids here keep. Our son and his dormmates have certainly grown up together over four years. They motivate each other. It's bittersweet, now that they're on the last leg of it together."

"We named our boat the H2Oh-No / Beyoncé. Leave it to the poli-sci major to build this one!"