9: A Kid in Monk's Clothing

I was 18 years old. I was a good kid, smart and fiercely dedicated to serving God too, but still just a kid. A teenager! I had graduated from Kellenberg High School so recently, I hadn't even gotten my yearbook yet, but suddenly I'm posing for pictures with my friends and family members wearing "the suit".

Welcome back to the blog! If you're just joining me here for the first time, please click the title at the top to go anywhere you want. I'm telling this story in chronological order for the most part, but you can start reading the blog entries anywhere you'd like, including this one right here.

Since my closest friends at the time had just graduated from Chaminade High School, and they were all taught by the same men I now lived with, prayed with, ate with, and even drank with, this situation was unique to say the least. They'd seen these monks day in and day out for the last four years of their lives, always dressed in the same simple black suit. So when they showed up to my parents' house to see me for my first visit home, and they saw me wearing the suit, it was quite the reality check.

I was their friend, only I wasn't just Sean anymore. I was Brother Sean now too, and I was living in a monastery no one ever saw the inside of. I was still, to everyone who knew me, just a kid in monk's clothing, but in a subtly powerful way, seeing me dressed in the monk's clothing helped them begin to see the real me, the monk I already saw myself to be.

This week, I thought it'd be helpful to invite you right into the action: the pictures, cards, letters, and journals of the time–including a few shots of my first visit "home" to see everyone–to give you a glimpse into why I created this blog in the first place. First, here are a few photos I selected of the day some of my family members and friends came to see me for the first time in the suit:






And here are two photos of what I'll be working with going forward, already separated out by date, just to help you understand the scope of my records from those four years of my life. I was surprised to realize how much I had, actually. At first, I'd only been planning to share journal entries, poems, and letters I received from others, but soon discovered I also had copies of the letters I sent other people too, as well as documentation received from various meetings, classes, and official notices from my religious superiors.



It may not look like much, but I honestly have a TON of material to choose from.

I can't share it all, and I doubt you'd want me to anyway, but I do plan on sharing a lot of this with you here on the blog, especially once we jump forward in time to my journal entries. I'm forever grateful to have all these letters, cards, photos, and personal journals, and really glad none of them were stolen from me while I was there.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait. Hold on a second there, Sean. Why would anyone ever steal something from you while you were living inside a monastery?

Well, for the answer to that question, you'll have to tune back in next week. The otherwise smooth road I was happily traveling on suddenly began to get VERY bumpy after only a few months since I joined the order. The situation I'm referring to was enough to make some people give it all up right then and there, so it's a testament to my fortitude I stayed at all.


Coming Next Week: The Hijacked Letter

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