Getting started...

I found out when I was around ten years old that my grandfather was a freemason. I didn't really know what it was, I just remember seeing mailings from the Shriners, etc that he was a part of. I also remember my mom mentioning while I was growing up that she, her sisters, and my grandmother were all members of the Eastern Stars, but once again, I had no idea what these were. It was not until I was around 16 that I actually started researching the masons. I met a group of masons at a festival running a concession stand and struck up a conversation with one of the men. I asked him what it took to be a mason. I told him my grandfather is a mason and I was interested in the group. He told me to ask my grandfather and if he brushes me off, to ask again later. He told me that this was a sort of method to make sure that I really was interested and not just asking as a passing thought. So I did. I asked my grandfather about it. He told me you had to be 21 to join the lodge and if I wanted to join then, he would get me a petition. "Lodge", "Petition", all these words went over my head, but I knew when I was 21, I would pursue the course.

Fast forward about 5 years.

My interest in the masons is not diminished and is only strengthened by popular books and movies coming out such as The DiVinci Code and National Treasure. I have since gone off to college and joined a fraternity, Kappa Sigma, whose ritual we are told was written by a mason- Stephen Alonzo Jackson. My senior year, we initiated an older student who was working on his masters. He is an army luitenant and also a mason. I ask him about the masons and he tells me more about them, a little of the history, and some of the ideals. I ask him what it takes to join, and he offers to print me a petition and put in a good word with a lodge if I found one. After we initiated him into Kappa Sigma, he started laughing, saying that if I joined the masons, I would understand why he was amused.

I was too busy during my junior and senior years of college to pursue the idea of joining the masons so I put it on the back burner. It was not until the second semester of grad school that I had a light enough schedule to commit myself to something outside of school. This was January 2009 and my grandmother was in the hospital with brain cancer. Consequently I was at the hospital alot more and around my grandfather alot more. I asked him about it and he told me that he would sign my petition if I needed to, but since I lived in Memphis I should contact my uncle who is also a mason about a lodge closer to where I live.

Uncle Jimmy put me in touch with the Worshipful Master of Memphis Lodge #118.