I headed home today after closeout formation at 1500H and reached Lexington, KY at around 2200H. I will spend the night here, and then continue with my travel back to Illinois so that I can be in the parish this weekend and be able to celebrate Masses with my parishioners on Sunday.

Phase I was different from CIMT in a lot of ways: I found the cadres more respectful of the students now that they have been “militarized”, there were less “study group sessions” during the weekends, the “accountability checks” were less intrusive, etc. I was not sure whether these changes were due to the fact that the student-chaplains were now considered to have reached a certain status after CIMT, or somebody in the past classes complained, or the new composition of the class and cadres brought a new way of doing things and relating with one another.

Personally I found it challenging, as a reservist joining a class that already spent almost a month together, to know all my classmates’ names and personal stories then leave them after two weeks.