I've long been interested in Freemasonry since I was 5 years old. Almost twenty years now I've had a fascination, border line obsessed over it. I recently moved for college and decided to finally look into joining freemasonry. In the city I'm living in now there are 4 lodges. I contacted one that seemed the most friendly and active lodges. They told me to come to lunch and an open meeting for installing officers for the next year.
I had always imagined in my mind going to the lodge for the first time would be a spectacular experience. I imagined everyone would want to meet the new person, and me being a younger person they would jump on the chance to get someone to petition their lodge. Maybe I had just played up the warm welcome in my mind to much that what I experienced had severely let me down.
Upon walking in the lodge several people just looked at me awkwardly as if shocked to see someone new. I sheepishly asked where the lunch would be and was directed to the adjacent room. Going in the room for lunch, I felt as if I was the new kid in high school. I got polite smiles from some people but I could almost see in there face that I was certainly not welcome. Others looked at me in a confused manner, bewildered that I was at their lodge. After sitting there for an hour by myself not saying a word to anyone, my hopes were dashed. I had imagined a "brotherly love" in the lodge, but I felt nothing of the sort. The meeting for installing officers was awe inspiring to me and only fueled my passion for wanting to join freemasonry. Since the meeting I have looked around of Facebook for masons in my area inquiring on how to go about becoming one and any information at all on the matter. The joy of Facebook is you can see that people have read your messages, and I haven't gotten a response from anyone. I feel as if I'm getting shut out from a club I so desperately want to be apart of.
I've always wanted to join freemasonry to call others brothers and to be apart of something bigger than myself. I've always had a passion for helping others and doing charity work and so has my girlfriend, hopefully soon to be wife. She has also expressed an interest in OES.
Is my experience here normal. Do I have to already have a friend to join freemasonry? I don't know any freemasons in my hometown, and the only people I know here are my teachers which none of them are masons. Am I out of luck, or should I keep trying and maybe visit one of the other lodges in my town?
I had always imagined in my mind going to the lodge for the first time would be a spectacular experience. I imagined everyone would want to meet the new person, and me being a younger person they would jump on the chance to get someone to petition their lodge. Maybe I had just played up the warm welcome in my mind to much that what I experienced had severely let me down.
Upon walking in the lodge several people just looked at me awkwardly as if shocked to see someone new. I sheepishly asked where the lunch would be and was directed to the adjacent room. Going in the room for lunch, I felt as if I was the new kid in high school. I got polite smiles from some people but I could almost see in there face that I was certainly not welcome. Others looked at me in a confused manner, bewildered that I was at their lodge. After sitting there for an hour by myself not saying a word to anyone, my hopes were dashed. I had imagined a "brotherly love" in the lodge, but I felt nothing of the sort. The meeting for installing officers was awe inspiring to me and only fueled my passion for wanting to join freemasonry. Since the meeting I have looked around of Facebook for masons in my area inquiring on how to go about becoming one and any information at all on the matter. The joy of Facebook is you can see that people have read your messages, and I haven't gotten a response from anyone. I feel as if I'm getting shut out from a club I so desperately want to be apart of.
I've always wanted to join freemasonry to call others brothers and to be apart of something bigger than myself. I've always had a passion for helping others and doing charity work and so has my girlfriend, hopefully soon to be wife. She has also expressed an interest in OES.
Is my experience here normal. Do I have to already have a friend to join freemasonry? I don't know any freemasons in my hometown, and the only people I know here are my teachers which none of them are masons. Am I out of luck, or should I keep trying and maybe visit one of the other lodges in my town?
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