Learn 2 Listen

  Katherine McManus graduated from Notre Dame in 2016. She was a member of the women's lacrosse team from 2012-2016. After graduating, she spent a year interning for Student Welfare and Development (ND Athletics), got her MA in Sport and Performance Psychology from the University of Denver, and a MA in Clinical Psychology from American University. Her research focuses on body image, eating, and exercise behaviors in athletic samples and childhood obesity community intervention and prevention strategies. Katherine believes in applied research that inspires action and change within systems and individuals. When working with clients, Katherine aims to help them feel and be their best in all areas of life. She believes in strengthening skills one already has, teaching new skills, and working within a clients’ lifestyle and needs. Join us as we chat about Katherine's personal and professional journey and how she focuses on positivity through adversity. Listen on Spotify Listen on Ap...

Father Pete McCormick is Notre Dame’s director of campus ministry, chaplain of the men’s basketball team, and previous rector of Keogh Hall. Father Pete joins Learn 2 Listen to chat about what it is like being a leader in the Notre Dame community and provides us with endless advice about traversing moments of self-doubt and uncertainty. He encourages us to take a leap of faith and to embrace not having all the answers all of the time. Learn more about Fa ther Pete and his story as we listen along! Listen on Spotify Listen on Apple Podcast

  I have always been someone that gets really attached to people. I have jumped from person to person, but truly also had great friendships and whatnot in the process. Clearly, I love attention so having had new people to constantly surround myself with is fun. On the other hand, though I have also learned very well how it feels to be constantly let down, over and over again. More recently over quarantine, I have also felt what it is like to have a delayed realization of a need to “heal” I guess. College has been fun but also very difficult. The one thing that really shook me at my core, however, was losing the trust of someone who was one of my best friends. At the beginning of one of my college years, I was raped by this person who, at the time, was a great friend of mine and who seemed to really care about me. I was devastated that someone I trusted could do that to another human, especially me (because you never think it will happen to you!). I really suffered later, but right ...

I struggled with how to start this for a few days because the idea of being so upfront about something so deeply personal is obviously terrifying. However, Mariah’s purpose for this fantastic platform is to use one another’s stories to help one another, so hopefully, this can help you or someone you didn’t know was struggling. For me, my battle with depression and anxiety started when I was 15. I tore the labrum in my shoulder in the middle of a swim meet and was sidelined from the sport I loved for close to a year. Following the surgery, I gained a lot of weight and withdrew from friends and family, because I thought I needed to go through it alone and didn’t want to burden anyone. It got to the point where I called my best friend at 2 in the morning after several months because I was terrified of the darkness I found myself in. While I can point to that night as when I was at my lowest, depression is not a fight that is simply fought and won, but one that can continue over years. Fol...

I really admire Mariah for creating this because, as her friend, I wanted nothing more than to support her, but every time I sat down to write something I couldn’t find words I was comfortable sharing (and the thought of being publicly vulnerable made me wanna armadillo as much as the next person). Reading what other people had to say put me at ease because I didn’t feel exposed or alone anymore— So I would say she’s off to a pretty great start:). I have struggled a lot with those times in life when “nothings wrong, but everything is wrong.” I would have so much anxiety and sadness about being stressed and not “feeling great” and so much paranoia that everyone thought I had my shit together and one slip up and my entire facade would come crashing down. We go to a school where there is this stigma that if you aren’t high strung and high achieving, you must not care all that much, or as much as other people at least. But at the same time, if you don’t go out, see people, are seen, then “...

Although I have only been around for 21 years, I have come to realize that there is no such thing as a “normal” person who is free from their personal demons. No matter who you are or how old you are, you have been in an everlasting battle with some demon, and for me, this demon has manifested itself in an anxiety disorder and panic disorder. My first memory of anxiety was the blurry outline of a yellow school bus ready to take me to my first day of kindergarten. I remember clinging to my mom’s leg and begging her not to make me get on that bus. Moments before what I would call my first panic attack, I had just taken the cheesy “first day of school” pictures and was in a great mood. This all changed when that bus approached, and I realized I was going to be separated from my mother. I felt paralyzed and even at a young age, all I could think about was I was going to die if I got on the bus. The interesting thing about my anxiety disorder is that I have what doctors call anticipatory an...

  I was overjoyed when I committed to row at Notre Dame during my senior year of high school, but I didn’t know what was in store for me the next few months. Just weeks after I signed the National Letter of Intent in October of 2016, I started feeling sharp pains shooting down my legs and my back seized up every time I got in a boat. After various MRI scans, I was diagnosed with two bulging discs in my back and I wasn’t given any sort of timeline as to when they would heal. I missed the bulk of my senior season and started my freshman year at Notre Dame in the same place I had been a year ago. I was pessimistic about my future on the rowing team due to my back, but I wanted to give it everything I had for that year. I spent countless hours on the bike and extra time in the training room doing rehab, and it finally paid off when I was able to step in a boat again for the first time in February of 2018. I worked my way up the ladder that spring and made the 2V4+ boat and won the silv...