Old Boy Highlight:   Shane May

How many years were you at St. John's?

3 ½ years-1985-1987 my sixth and half of my seventh grade year, and 1989-1991 my junior and senior years.

What was the reason you attended St. John's?

During my 5^th grade year, I was bored and not challenged by school, so I decided I wanted to go to military school. I grew up in Clovis, New Mexico, but I learned that New Mexico Military Institute only took freshmen and older. Fortunately, I had relatives in Topeka, so we decided to look at SJMS. Going to military school was truly something I wanted to do, so we drove to Salina in April of 1985 to check St. John’s out. It was the same weekend they were having AFI for that Corps. We got to see all the pomp and circumstance of the Annual Inspection, and it was quite impressive. That’s all it took for me to decide that St. John’s was where I wanted to go.

What is your fondest memory of St. John's?

I have tons of fond memories from St. John’s. One that stands out was going to Washington DC during my senior year as a member of the “Presidential Classroom”. Actually I think the proper name is something like The Presidential Classroom for Young Americans. It was pretty intense, and it was a lot to take in—with only 6 days to do it all. We got to see the actual constitution at the US Archives, the Smithsonian Institute, and The Supreme Court Building. We got to stand under the capital rotunda where Lincoln’s body laid in state, and we saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I got to meet Colin Powell when he was still Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and also my state senators and congressman from New Mexico. It was a truly memorable experience for a boy from Clovis, New Mexico. I had been to big cities a few times in my life, but nothing could have prepared me for Washington.

What was your greatest accomplishment while a Cadet? 

My first year and a half at St. John’s totaled 3 semesters, or 9 grading periods. I was there for 2 weeks into my 10^th grading period when I decided to go home. I made Blue Beret all 10 grading periods. I had enough extra credit grades that I still won that 10^th time, even after having missed the last 4 weeks of the 6 week grading period. I don’t know if that record was ever broken, but at the time of my graduation, no one had won blue beret that many times, much less consecutively. I was 12 and 13 years old, and to this day, I still consider that accomplishment to be one of my greatest achievements. St. John’s was the site of many accomplishments that I am proud of. My senior year I was the Band Master, the Battalion Chaplain, and the Public Affairs Officer, which together was quite a load, especially during the time leading up to AFI. When you add in the Presidential Classroom, and having to go home for my grandmothers funeral in the same time frame, I have to wonder how I was able to do it all. That is what SJMS was about. Making you the best you could be. But the brotherhood and camaraderie that my fellow classmates and I share along with the staff and other former cadets is probably what I consider to be my greatest achievement. Whatever animosity that may have existed between myself and any of my peers, is gone and long forgotten when we gather for reunions, and I find myself looking forward to the next time I will get to go to Salina, just to look around in the museum, and to talk with friends from my youth. It saddens me when I learn of anyone passing, and I find joy in hearing of new babies, and grandbabies, and successes, and dreams coming true. I have no brothers, or sisters, or kids of my own, and though I do have some cousins, our ages are very far apart, so my SJMS family is my family. It brings me great joy to see everyone when we get together.

Who was your most influential member of the staff?

Without question, Wendy Stein. She had been there one or maybe two years when I first came to St. John’s in 1985, and I guess she was there on the last day when the gates closed the final time. That’s love and commitment, and with that kind of dedication how could she not be my favorite??? With the exception of my parents, Mrs. Stein is probably the one person that had the biggest impact on my life. She was always there to offer encouragement, or advice and she never criticized. To this day I find myself trying to guess what Mrs. Stein would do when I find myself in a situation that I don’t know how to handle. I thank God for Mrs. Stein, and pray that he sends more people like her to mentor the young people in today’s crazy world. Fr. Cox was also a big influence in my life. I was the Battalion Chaplain his first year at SJMS, and he and I were close. I was very saddened to hear of his passing.

What life lesson did you learn that carried you through your life?

Keep on keeping on. When things get bad, and the going gets rough, if you keep pushing forward, things will get better. Help those that need your help. Do so without expecting anything in return, and you will never be let down. One thing I have learned is that we are flawed as humans, and we will always get let down if we expect too much from others. Don’t judge people. Applaud their successes, and offer encouragement when they fail. Remember it is from failure that we learn. If no adversity ever confronts us, how would we ever know how to handle it when it does show up?

If you could send a message to your younger self what would you say?

Exactly what I said when I answered the previous question. Those were lessons learned long after my time at SJMS. I had the knowledge from seeing how the staff and fellow cadets handled life and its issues, but it took many years to learn how to apply it to life in a meaningful way. I love the statement “If I had known then what I know now…” It speaks a truth that covers the human condition in its entirety. I guess that is really what life is all about. Picking up pieces of knowledge here and there, and learning when and how to apply it when it needs to be applied. You may not use all the knowledge you learn through life, but at least you can be prepared for most things that may present themselves---IF you have saved the info from your past when it was given to you. No one ever complained about knowing too much. People will complain when they don’t know enough though. I would also tell myself to be gentle to those who are less assertive than me, sharing the blessings I have received with those less fortunate than me, and I would stress how important it is to offer a kind word to someone who is feeling down.

As you've built your life after St. John's...what has been your greatest challenge/success?

Learning the proper way to handle circumstances when they arise, and knowing when to do it and when to let things be. In other words, even though I may know or think I know what needs to be done to fix a certain situation, the real lesson is to know whether the issue at hand is actually mine to fix to begin with.

Looking back on your life...share what you've pursued as a career and the hobbies or interests you developed.

I drove a semi for over 20 years, and I logged over 2 million miles behind the wheel. Some of those miles were in trucks that I owned myself. In 2014, I decided to come off the road and spend as much time at home as I could. My folks were getting older, and I felt it was time to spend some time with them. I am glad I made that decision. I lost my dad in June of 2021, and I cherish the time we got to spend together. Getting to know him as my friend, and seeing him through the eyes of an adult really made me see the world differently. When I stopped seeing him as only my parent, and putting him on a pedestal, and expecting him to be God, and began to see him as an equal, albeit with much more life experience than me, but a person that was willing to share that experience with me, and not expect anything in return, really gave me a new lease on life, and how I lived it. As I said earlier, people will let you down when you expect too much from them. I mean, we are all human right? That was the greatest lesson I learned in life, and now my interests are more aligned around things I can do to help the world be a better place. I can’t change the world, but I can do my part to help those who will be here tomorrow after I’m gone. Maybe I can share some of my experiences in life with someone one of these days, and maybe what I share will help them somehow like my dad helped me. I also still love music, and I play in a little band here in Clovis. I have a small bubble that I live in, and have found that the greatest happiness for me comes from the little things in life.

How did you feel when visiting the museum? 

It made me a little sad to see St. John’s reduced to one building, but at the same time my heart was filled with pride to know that I was part of something that was so meaningful in so many people’s lives. However, I began to realize that the building that I saw as being all that was left of St John’s is really a time capsule of different memories, and without that little building and its contents, all I would have left of St. John’s is my memories alone. I find myself going through the pictures I took in the museum occasionally, and I find peace in the knowledge that times change, and how lucky I was to have lived in an era that supported something like St. John’s, and even luckier to have been a part of it, and it to have made such an impact in my life from that point on. Now the museum is like a trunk or cigar box, or that special place that we all have where we keep mementos from our past that mean something to us. Only mine is a whole place that I can go visit, rather that sneaking off to some little corner of the attic by myself to look in my box of memories. It has meaning to me that is hard to explain, and unless you lived it yourself I don’t think you can fully appreciate just how important that little building with all that history really is.

What is your greatest hope for the future?

I hope that we can find a path where we can all find some common ground, and start making memories that have hope in them. I think the world today has lost its ability to recognize that hope is the light at the end of the tunnel, and our capability of reaching that light one day is a pretty good reason to push on. The knowledge that there is a better tomorrow is all we really need to motivate us to be the best we can be, and do our part to make a difference.

Describe what being an Old Boy means to you and how you would explain the experience to those who weren't fortunate to be able to attend St. John's.

I don’t want to sound like someone who lives in the past, but if you look at the answers I have given to these questions, you can see how important St. John’s was and is to me, and how much it impacted my life. I don’t know how my life would’ve been without the brotherhood that I found at SJMS. They were and are still my family, and I can only hope that each and every person is able to experience something akin to what I experienced at SJMS in their lives. It truly is humbling to have been part of something so impactful in people’s lives, and I hope and wish the best to everyone that gets to read this interview. God Bless each and every one of you, and God Bless America. SJMS is part of me, and I part of it, and I am glad that it is so.