Sean had many varied interests. When he was little, he was my "Sean-e-pooh-bear." Sean had so many interests that it's hard to narrow them down. I'm making a quilt square for him and found some artwork that symbolizes the many facets of his life. I don't have a specific symbol for him, but below are some of the symbols I found to put on the quilt square I am making for him.

  COMPUTER. Sean was a Computer Science major in college and taught himself to program in middle school. I hired him one summer when he was 14 or 15, and he designed and maintained our company website. He would always fix my computer and show me how to do new things.

  Sean loved MOVIES. He wanted to be a screenwriter and in his words, "make a difference in people's lives through film." Before our second son, Benjamin, was born, we watched movies every night. Sean's first job was at Blockbuster and he could always have two movies out at any time. He used to say, "What are we watching for dinner tonight?" Every year we would make sure to see all the "best picture" nominees, discuss and review the movies after we watched them, and made a big deal out of watching the Academy Awards every year.

  Sean was a writer. He wrote beautiful poetry, short stories, science fiction, and had started a few novels and screenplays.

  Sean played the saxophone in middle school, in his high school marching band, and his first year in college in the marching band. He never really practiced and his sax playing wasn't all that great -- he didn't do it for fun, but he was PERFECTLY PRECISE in his marching, and enjoyed the challenge of marching and making all kinds of complicated designs WHILE playing.

  BOOKS. Sean learned to read early and always loved reading. He read a lot of mysteries, science fiction, fantasy, and warrior books, among others.

  PHILOSOPHY. Sean loved philosophy, and enjoyed discussing life. He liked MC Escher and his prints. I think this was one of his favorites, symbolic of the intertwined-ness between the individual and the universe.

  GAMES. Sean loved all kinds of games, from Monopoly at age 2 (and he was the banker -- could make change for any property! -- his first genius was math), to all kinds of board games, collectible card games, Dungeons and Dragons, Playstation and Nintendo, and computer games. He considered himself a "gamer" and he was a nationally ranked "Magic the Gathering" player.

  MUSIC. Sean didn't really like music until preadolescence. He used to tell Jeff and me to "turn down the music!" We took him to a Billy Joel concert and later a Pink Floyd laser light show and he began to develop a wide taste in music. He liked a lot of the old rock-and-roll that Jeff and I listen to, but he also liked some unusual stuff -- Dream Theater, Ozzie Ozborne. He never liked rap or pop music, thank goodness. He loved to find a new song and play it for me on the computer.

  COMEDY. Sean loved things that made him laugh. He had such a beautiful laugh; he laughed with his whole being. He had great timing, and remembered and told jokes very well. He would have made a great standup comedian.



Sean had good taste. In Friends, Music, Movies, Books, Food. And he had so much character. He would stand up for the underdog, argue anything with anybody, and play devil's advocate. Sean had tons of character, he was very supportive of those he cared about and was "always there" for his friends, kind and considerate.

By Diana Kulas, Sean's Mom Forever