January 5th, 2026: Final day of SEEK. I woke up at 6:15am and got all packed up in 30 minutes and went down for cereal, a banana, and coffee. Mahdi got packed before me and Frociaggine did after me. I met up with the others like Nicodemus, at the smaller hotel at 7:15am. More came over like Drawmij and Drawmija, Bernarda, Nikki, and Knitter. Nikki asked me for my phone number so she could invite me to her boyfriend’s birthday party on January 10th. I accepted and saw her address. I replied to her with:
>Uhm, #Doxxed
She left me on read. We put our bags and backpacks on the bus and took it to the convention center. I sat next to Urbino for the short trip and near Amethyst, Nash, Sixes’ friend, Frociaggine and his girlfriend, Bernarda, and Seraphim. I got into the bathroom at 7:45pm and ended up getting a bloody nose that lasted for a long time. Twice did I have it stop temporarily for me to clear my nose and a large goop of mucus and blood went down my throat, causing the bleeding to continue. I healed up at 8:32am and while walking encountered the Steven’s Point Home Caretaker and she said hi to me, I said hi afterwards. We sat down for the talk, which was first for some reason. I couldn’t find the group and just sat up front near a bunch of empty seats. During the talk we were instructed to find the person next to us and pray over each other. The two people near me in my row got partnered up with each other so I scooted down a long way to meet this woman I’ll be calling Jacky B, she prayed for me and asked if she could put her hand over my left shoulder and I agreed. Her prayer was longer than my prayer but she left to put away her luggage. I found my location through the groupme chat and walked over to mostly women, including Jade, Morgado, Oriang, Bernarda, Alley, and Swifte. I overheard Bernarda talk about her boyfriend. Bernarda’s boyfriend was born in Kosovo but moved here when he was young, he worked in business and Bernarda talked about knowing him for 9 months but she had a crush on him for 6 of the months but only dated for 3. He worked at a business firm and she had him and her as her lock screen. Things went as normal for the mass and the bishop remarked that the archbishop presiding over the Thursday mass was smiling a lot. We then congregated towards the back after mass because we’d be meeting up at the weird face display. I met up with others including Gabriella, Kristine, Alley, Casta’s husband, and Kristine’s brother who was wearing his mom’s name tag. We went to the statue and then started walking over to the bus at 12:20pm. Ava also went to the speed dating event and she told me she didn’t meet any cute guys there, I think she’s just picky. I stopped to the side to wait up for Markus and Mahdi so that Frociaggine told me:
“Keep mooving!”
I quietly said:
“Shut the fuck up.”
Heading back to the two buses. I got on with all the others, including Agaw, Alley, Amethyst, Ava, Bernarda, Cronstedt, Drawmij, Drawmija, Froccigane and his girlfriend, Jade, Kaufman, Luigi, Magdalus, Mahdi, Markus, Morgado, Nash, Nicodemus, Nikki, Oriang, Punk’s friend, Quinci, Seraphim, Sideburns, Sixes and his friend, Swifte, Telemachus, and Urbino. I knew Hannah and the priest were on the other bus and we proceeded to drive all the way back home while I had SuperLocalMaps on for most of the time while Nicodemus sat next to me. I had some texting I’ve done yesterday and today with the woman from Steven’s Point, Wisconsin:
>Hey Steven’s Point Home Caretaker this is Gemerson Palmer from the dating event! =]
<Heyy
>How is SEEK so far?
<Great! You?
>Amazing.
>*for me
I hadn’t texted her since. Frociaggine’s girlfriend talked about wanting to be a teacher. They talked a lot with Amethyst. Quinci was mostly sleeping or listening to music and we talked to each other sometimes. Our first lunch stop was at 2:00pm at a Culvers in Richmond, Indiana. I had the value basked while I watched Agaw talking to Punk’s friend. I was in line behind Ava and in front of Telemachus. I went over to sit with Nikki and Markus. During the conversation I overheard her mention what I though was the term ‘goyslop’ so I asked her:
“Wait did you say goyslop?”
She said no, what she actually meant was slop, and then asked me what ‘goy’ means. Markus and I said it meant a non-Jew. We changed to Nick Fuentes and I told him I liked him being mentally tortured by his superchats. We then talked about the girl I met at speed dating. I told them about her and I found her Instagram, she had a distinct last name so it’s easy. I then told them about my texts and showed them and the mood shifted. They had this whole “please calm down” but super soft vibe. They told me that I wasn’t asking enough questions. I then suggested that I should text her asking her what Catholic order she’d join. Markus stopped me there and told me.
“So often, too many Catholic men fall into the trap of talking too much about religion when they first meet a girl they like.”
I then got that weird alienating mixture of comfort and “No no you’re fucking up!” feeling until they told me to text them at 2:04pm and say:
>Hey! [name], hope your SEEK was well, how did Jesus speak to you?
I thought it was a bit hypocritical because the cool it with the religion talk they told me. I got back on the bus and continued driving there. Our dinner stop was the gas station we first stopped at. I was getting off and saw Quinci and Bernarda run a bit in there and I ran across while others were crossing. I heard Frociaggine tell me:
“Quit running Gemerson.”
I was just fed up at this point with the cold I’ve been having on the trip here. I told him back:
“Genuinely shut the fuck up, I’m tired of your bullshit.”
He stopped talking to me at that point. I got 2 beef sticks and a gatorade for dinner and went out to the bus, fearing his wrath while he was waiting in line at the Subway in the gas station. I got out and he never replied to me. When we started going I saw I got some messages on GroupMe:
<Gemerson, I was joking and wasn’t trying to be mean. I’ll own that I snapped a few days ago and I’m sorry for that, but I don’t mean what I said to be taken seriously. I wasn’t trying to be rude — it was meant as joking around, not as being mean.
I replied not realizing until I wrote this diary entry that he ChatGPT generated it:
>Ok thank you very much. Apology accepted.
<I’ll be more mindful going forward, but I don’t appreciate being spoken to that way in public.
Magdalus announced there would be an open mic thing to say what we loved about this
Most of the people here spoke but I remembered some distinct ones like Drawmija told us she’s like 18 and at the beginning of the year, she wasn’t religious at the start of the year and due to a falling out with a relationship which landed her in a cold kind of place. Drawmij went after her and was a generic support one. Alley was positive and then there was Agaw’s, she talked about going to a Protestant church when she was at her lowest through her grandpa’s death by bowel cancer, her grandma’s death, and then her other grandpa nearly dying of cancer but at some point Agaw converted to Catholicism then her grandpa went into recovery. I went up and spoke and got a lot of applause. I continued to suffer with my stuffed nose. We did rosary at 5:40pm and I blindfolded myself with my scarf for that. I overheard Quinci, Frociaggine’s girlfriend, Amethyst, and a 4th girl talking about hanging out after getting back but Quinci said her dad was picking her up. I got back and got a “candy salad” and some of Bernarda’s donuts. Seraphim drove me home and played music. We passed an ugly Iglesia church and talked about Protestantism’s appeal to the people because it wasn’t so hard on big-brained theology. I got dropped off and opened up my package from my Godmother of Saint Augustine’s Confessions. I took a shower and went to sleep.
Song of the Day: Wellerman - The Longest Johns (2021)
