After I had let everyone know that I was going to seminary things started to move really fast. Everyone wanted a visit or to spend time with me before I leave. I understand what people are thinking, but it isn't like I will be locked away for a number of years. Although I will of course be restricted by finance and needing to get done all that needs to get done I will be free to visit people and see them even after I leave. I guess the one angle that I understand more on this is the people in the Iowa-Illinois area that I live in... I probably won't be coming back here a lot during my time at seminary.
Although I had started packing before being accepted to seminary it was now becoming even more serious. It was also very difficult... my last two moves were paid for by the government and professional movers had packed and moved all of my stuff... so I hadn't thinned out any of my property during that time. I also had a lot of stuff in my storage unit in Stevens Point, WI that had been just sitting there since I had sold my house two and a half or three years ago. So I had the long process of sorting through stuff. I had to decide what needed to go with me to seminary, there is limited room, so this had to be limited as well. I had to decided what stuff I wanted to keep and could store at my mom's house. Of the remaining stuff I had to figure out what could be sold, what could be donated, and what could be thrown away. This has been a long process.
I pretty much felt like I was preparing for any other move and career change... my faith life was already strong and I kept that up, but aside from that the preparations were pretty normal. At work I kept at all the stuff that I could and started to prepare turn over documents to give to my replacement. I hoped to be able to give these while training whomever it is before I left... However, there was too much interest from those internal to my project office so it has to go through a more formal hiring process with computer screening and interviews and such. This has caused me to rework the turnover documents ton an even more basic way to help the new person along.
Life started to change noticeably for me about mid to late July. The Diocese has a retreat for seminarians. A retreat is just a term for getting away from the day to day stuff to hopefully grow spiritually. I was truly somewhat disappointed by this retreat. It felt more like a seminarian conference than a retreat. A lot of very useful information was distributed, and there was great socialization with the other seminarians, but the talks and prayer time seemed almost just fit in, rather than the point of the retreat. I guess that maybe the other seminarians got more out of it and may have a different take, but this was my take on it. I had felt kind of odd going to this anyways. There were others in the same situation, but I felt odd because I hadn't yet started seminary. As I saw it, my primary focus should have been working to pay off my truck and preparing to go to seminary, probably not taking off of work for this, but I guess that is why I don't make those decisions, the Vocation Director does.
The weekend after the seminarian retreat was even more special. Newman Parish in Stevens Point, my home parish, was going to offer a blessing for me going away. On the way up there, I decided to see if I could take a couple of things to Mundelein Seminary to make it easier to fit my stuff when I finally moved. I got into my room and moved a bit of stuff in. I then drove on the Stevens Point where I finished emptying out my storage unit and took the lock off of the door.
The blessing used at the Masses on Saturday and Sunday was the same blessing that Fr. Tom's parish used when he left for seminary 20 years before... I thought this was pretty cool. My mom and stepfather and brother and sister-in-law came over for the Masses that weekend. After the Saturday evening we went to a wonderful couple from the parish's home for a little reception. Several good friends and some family were there, it was a very nice get together and celebration. On Sunday my aunt and uncle came to the Mass. They tried to surprise me, but I had grown suspicious since my mom had said that she wasn't going to go to their place despite being so close. It was great to see them, it had been a while. After that we went out to lunch and had a great time before all driving on our separate ways.
I had the Monday off, so on Sunday after lunch I headed over to my mom's house to spend the night. Monday I got together with one of my great friends who is also doing something special in her life, so it will be difficult to see her for a while. I then headed down for a stretch of work... my last long stretch.
This is probably too long, I'll write more later.
Peace,
Adam
Adam
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