Sean Hannigan โ18 knows what itโs like to be up against something he canโt control. Whether heโs navigating a sailboat, a public health issue or a life without three of his gastrointestinal organs, the former crew member of the Collegeโs champion offshore sailing team has learned that โ if you really want to stay on course โ you have to accept the situation, adjust your expectations and adapt your plans. And then you just keep on going.
Itโs an awful thing to see suffering and know thereโs nothing you can do to make it stop. The first time Sean Hannigan โ18 encountered that unbearable helplessness, he knew he couldnโt feel that way again. From then on, heโd find a way to help โ heโd do everything in his power. Heโd do whatever it takes.
He was just 6 years old โ too little to help the man in the street. He didnโt have the skills to do whatever he needed to do. He didnโt even know what needed to be done. All he knew was the man was hit by a car, and now he was in pain.
โItโs OK, Sean โ heโs getting the care he needs,โ his mom told him at the Chinese restaurant, where she was trying to calm him down over a cup of tea. Sheโd stopped the car at the scene, made sure help was on the way, but she couldnโt console her precious, kind-hearted little boy. โIt isnโt up to you to fix this โ no one expected you to do anything.โ
But Sean expected it of himself. It was the right thing to do. You help people in need โ you just do. That much Sean knew from the very beginning. And to help as many people as he could, he knew something else: He had a lot to learn.
Sean may have been the youngest of the family, but he always had an old soul. Despite the doting adoration from his two older sisters and loving parents, Sean was the nurturer and the warrior โ always concerned for others, always standing up for the downtrodden. It didnโt matter if he was one of the smallest kids in his class, he didnโt think twice about confronting the bullies in his school for picking on his classmates.
โHeโs just always been that way,โ says his mom, Sherry Hannigan. โHe just has loving-kindness in him, and he shares it with everyone. And he does it like he does everything: at 100 miles an hour. Thereโs no in between.โ
Between his kind heart and his innate moral compass, doing the right thing and helping others came easy to Sean. A little more difficult for the eager altruist: finding the patience to grow up so he could be big enough and strong enough to help strangers on the street. Dressing up as a police officer for Halloween just wasnโt cutting it โ he wanted to be a cop now.
โHis nemesis has always been himself in that his expectations for himself are always far above not what he can actually achieve, but what he can achieve right then,โ his mother says. โHeโs the kid who goes into class on the first day and gets upset with himself because he doesnโt already know the stuff.โ
All he could do was keep on learning. As Seanโs impatience spilled over into his appetite for knowledge, it eventually led to an obsession with all things science. He spent days upon days sitting in the library, soaking up everything he could about animals and the biological world. โThen it just transitioned from being strictly biology to the natural earth sciences, and then chemistry and mathematics,โ he says. โItโs just the way my brain likes to work.โ
The truth is, Seanโs brain just likes to work. Heโs got this unquenchable thirst for learning that only gets thirstier the more he learns. As a kid, itโs what compelled him to read the entire set of encyclopedias, cover to cover. As an adult, itโs what drives him to take a deeper look at every … little … thing.
Nothing is safe from Seanโs curiosity. Not even beer.
โI brew my own beer, so I get to cultivate my own yeasts and play around with the esters and ketones and everything else โ all the little components โ to try to perfect my favorite strain of yeast,โ he says. โJust tweaking every bit about it: So, โOK, if I change it by three degrees, does that change the amount of sweetness to something more complex or something more simple?โโ
His questions are always followed by another question โย not because the answers arenโt satisfying, but because theย questions are.
โWith every question, he makes these connections that make him dig even deeper,โ says John Creed, associate professor of political science at the College, where Sean would come to study public health. โThereโs always more to figure out and more to ask about. He has a capacity for continual curiosity โ he just keeps seeking out more information. And he has the ability to apply what he learns and make connections in other areas of his own life.โ
You canโt confine Seanโs learning. Not to one question, not to one answer, not to one topic. His is the kind of learning that doesnโt fit neatly into the pages of a book โ it canโt be bound between the A and the XYZ volumes of the encyclopedia. It doesnโt adhere to those kinds of constraints.
Raising the Sails
At first, Sean hated going out on the water. Heโd rather go below and sit in the cabin than be out there skimming across that slippery space where the water meets the sky.
โBeing on a boat didnโt make a whole lot of sense to me โ I just didnโt have any interest,โ says Sean, who was born in California and spent his childhood in Tucson, Ariz., before his family moved to Annapolis, Md. โI always joke that Iโm just a desert rat at heart.โ
But that rat eventually found its sea legs. And, as the story goes, we have John Maliszeski, Yuengling and maybe Jimmy Buffet to thank for that. Maliszeski, the Hannigansโ neighbor in Annapolis, was a middle-aged, rugged Polish guy with a big,ย heavy keelboat and โ as far as Sean could tell โ only one songย on his playlist.
โIt was always โMargaritaville,โโ says Sean with a laugh. โLiterally, thatโs it.โ
Maliszeski had invited the then 14-year-old Sean to come out and join his crew for a Wednesday night race, and โ after theyโd raced the super-slow boat around some cans on the Magothy River for a couple of hours โ Maliszeski cranked up the radio, ripped open a bag of Utz pretzels and offered Sean an ice-cold Yuengling: โDo you think your parents would mind?โ
โI was like, โOf course not! Iโm a responsible 14-year-old!โโย laughs Sean. โIt kept me coming back! I was like, โAll right! See yโall next week!โโ
After a while, Sean didnโt need the extra incentive. And, before he knew it, he was no longer just watching from the back ofย the boat.
โSuddenly, now Iโm trimming, now Iโm doing this and that, and other people were asking for crew, and I jumped boats,โ he says. โIt was just kind of like the fuse had been lit at that point.โ
And not just for Sean โ now that the word was out that he was a lightweight crewmember with some skills, he was in high demand.
โI would get all these calls from these grown men asking if Sean could come out โ it was a battle for who could get him first,โ laughs Sherry. โThese 50- and 60-year-old men were his peers โ any other kid would have been bored to tears, but Sean was born this old soul. His destiny was set at this point.โ
Sean learned everything about sailing that he could, even taking a job as a dock assistant at the Annapolis Harbor Master, but itโs the lessons about patience, adaptability and fortitude that have mattered the most.
โSailing informs everything I do,โ he says. โIt really ties into everything in my life โ and I inevitably end up meshing sailing with the different things going on in my life. Every time Iโd go out, sailing would give me another life lesson โ or at least present a challenge that I could then kind of lay my own problems onto. Youโre dealing with forces that are totally out of your control, with forces that are invisible. Youโre using these principles to try to make it work for you, so it makes it very easy to turn it into a metaphorical lesson.โ
He knew firsthand that life wasnโt always smooth sailing โ that there are storms we have to weather, and sometimes weโre thrown off course. They may have been metaphorical out on the water, but back on land, these life lessons were getting all too real.
Uncharted Waters
It was the stuff of every parentโs nightmare โ not to be able to take all the pain and fear away, not to be able to promise that everything will be OK in the morning.
Sean was 15 years old when his immune system started attacking the cells in his large intestine. As a sophomore at Broadneck High School, he was diagnosed was ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammatory disease that causes ulcers on the inner lining of the large intestine, but it was the subsequent complications from his treatments that were the hardest on his young body.
Adult-sized doses of steroids caused his veins to burst and the tips of his knee bones to die, resulting in a double knee replacement. The barrage of drugs and biologics had his immune system so worn down that with every surgery came a new complication. In pre-op for one surgery, he had no blood pressure for a solid two minutes. And a 13-hour surgery to remove his large intestine and rebuild it from a section of his small intestine resulted in sepsis and constant infections for a solid four years.
โAnything and everything that could go wrong went wrong. So, we just would make trips back and forth, back and forth,โ says his mom, who โ together with his dad โ spent a good part of two years trading off 24-hour shifts with Sean at Georgetown Universityโs pediatrics ward. โWe would sit and just cry. And to have to tell someone, โI donโt know why this is happening to youโ: That is horrible. Especially at that age.
โI guess I could have fallen apart and been useless,โ she adds, โbut thatโs not my nature. My nature is that of, โWeโre going to do something. You embrace the suck. You find a way to get through. Whatever it takes.โโ
And so the Hannigans learned to live with it. To adapt. To adjust.
โIt was either give up or put up the best fight I could,โ says Sean, who โ when it was all said and done โ had eight gastrointestinal surgeries, ultimately removing his gall bladder, appendix and his entire large intestine, leaving him with a colostomy bag. โEven though it comes with its hang-ups and limitations, Iโve found a way to make it work.
โMy dad used to say, โBe fluid. Be like water. Change to your environment.โ And part of that is letting go of old expectations and accepting the new normal,โ he adds. โSo, I made the conscious decision to find a new normal. If you keep tweaking what is the baseline of the new normal, then before long, itโs just your life.โ
Seanโs life wasnโt going back to Broadneck High. It wasnโt going to give him all the experiences that his classmates were having โ those milestones that, one way or another, shape you into whoย you become. Life for Sean wasnโt ever going to be defined by high school trauma or drama that heโd one day either try to run from or return to.
โItโs amazing how many lessons you learn in high school: how to date people, how to socially engage with people in meaningful ways, the whole popularity thing โ so many different things that you really learn in that environment that arenโt academic,โ says Sean. โAnd I lost out on all that.โ
He finished high school from home, though his homeschool teacherโs lessons were nothing compared to what he was learning from being sick.
โI was learning deeper, meaningful life lessons,โ he says. โThings that normally take a life of experience to learn, I got in this short burst. People say Iโm an old soul, but I had to go from 15 to 50 all at once โ I was slung-shot into these lessons that most people my age donโt yet have.โ
On Course
Childhood dreams face a lot of competition over the years โ especially when youโre spending those formative years fighting for your life. But that didnโt throw Sean off. He was still going to find a way to help people โ now he just had a new plan for how to do it.
โI got to see the medical profession from a unique perspective, and it really had an impact on me. Iโd seen the system and its inefficiencies โ and maybe I could make the system better,ย improve it for other people,โ says Sean, noting that his fatherโs job in law enforcement with the FDA made him think beyond traditional medicine. โI realized that it would be really difficult to make a real, systemic difference if I did pre-med: I would be aย drop of water in an ocean. But with public health, I can make a bigger impact on population morbidity and mortality by creating policy, creating public health interventions and adjusting environmental and behavioral factors, so I really started running off in that direction.โ
It led him right to the College of Charleston. Not only did it have a vaunted public health program, but it had the perfect environment for the intimate kind of learning Sean craved. It also had a sailing team that was the best in the country and a robust outreach program for promoting the sport in the greater Charleston community.
He couldnโt have landed in a better place.
Sean hit the ground running. He started sailing with the Collegeโs varsity offshore team and was brought on to work as a dock assistant at the Collegeโs J. Stewart Walker Sailing Complex and as a teaching assistant for both adult and youth sailing classes in the Collegeโs Learn to Sail program.
โWhat stood out about Sean was that he was exceptionally enthusiastic and hardworking,โ says Greg Fisher, the director of the sailing program. โHe really made it his job to be a student of the sport.โ
But, then, heโs a student of almost everything.
โHeโs not just learning things to learn things. Learning matters to him and to his life. He didnโt come to college to graduate; heโs here to learn and find more things to learn about โ and thatโs what this experience should do for every student,โ says Professor Creed, who recognized something special in Sean from the get-go and made it a point to help him become a more efficient learner. โHe is the perfect example of what the College can do for a student and also what a student can do for the College.โ
โHeโs not there just to talk the talk,โ agrees Brian Bossak, associate professor of public health, who led Sean in a water quality testing project that really demonstrated Seanโs leadership and his commitment to doing everything possible to learn more. โHe wants to get out there in the field and get his hands dirty. The research team was so much stronger because of him.โ
And so was the sailing team.
โIn offshore sailing, the crew relies on communication and teamwork because it has to operate as a single unit โ and this is where Sean really excelled,โ says Fisher. โHe built that relationship with his teammates.โ
And, as a testament to that relationship, last year his teammates elected him captain of the team, which won the national offshore championship in 2014.
โThey all respected his passion and his skills in leadership,โ says Fisher. โThat really makes a difference. Because of that, he was able to take us all to a new level.โ
Aside from giving him the most competitive, high-performance sailing of his life, the team also gave him the strength he needed to get through the tough times he was still facing physically, which included three more surgeries after arriving at the College.
โThe team really became my support network, my family,โ says Sean. โIt made me realize just the size and scope of the family and true brotherhood that I have with so many different people. If it were not for the sailing team, I would not have gotten through the illness as successfully as Iโve been able to. Thereโs no way to overstate the way it impacted me to have that community and brotherhood.โ
Even with the support of the team, things werenโt easy for Sean. There were times when he really shouldnโt have been going to class, much less going to sail. There were times when he ended up in the hospital because he kept pushing himself. And there were two times when he was forced to give into the illness and take the entire semester off because he was just too sick.
โI tripped up a few times trying to cope with the stress because I kept holding onto these really high expectations of myself that were simply not achievable โ I forgot to let go of the past and accept the new normal,โ says Sean, admitting that he began abusing the opiates heโd been prescribed. โI isolated myself pretty severely during those times.โ
It was the sailing team and his love for the sport that pulled him out of that funk enough to enroll back in school.
โThroughout that entire journey, I continued to stay on the water,โ says Sean, who also stayed on the winning course with his teammates time and time again โ most recently winning the J22 class in Charleston Race Week in April. โI pushed through,ย and I kept pushing, and was able to ultimately look back on my sailing career thus far and be really proud of what Iโve been ableย to accomplish.โ
Another pride point: Seanโs expanded role as the community outreach director in the sailing program, which allows him to share the sailing experience with people who might not otherwise getย the opportunity.
โMy goal there is to increase accessibility to sailing and increase the diversity of the sailing community โ because, letโs face it, the sailing community is disproportionately wealthy white people. So, how can we change that?โ
The steps the sailing program has taken are all so perfect for Sean: There are STEM camps that bring in kids from impoverished areas to teach them sailing and the math and engineering that goes into it. And then thereโs the work he does through Warrior Sailing, Adaptive Expeditions and even Special Olympics โ all of which share the sailing experience with people who have varying levels of disabilities or physical impairments.
โSean has a real passion for this โ for making the sport available and fun for people,โ says Fisher, adding that โ whether itโs a sailing fundamental, an advanced seamanship class or an adaptive program for people with sensory disabilities โ Sean will go out of his way to make it the best it can be. โI think thatโs the coolest thing about him. If he sees that people will get more out of a program if it extends all weekend rather than just a few hours, heโll make it happen. Heโs going to do it the right way. It doesnโt matter that the right way is not the easy way.โ
Itโs no surprise, really. He hadnโt gotten this far in life the easy way. Heโd fought for his life to get here, and now that heโd madeย it, heโd fight for other people who need help. Heโd do everythingย he could.
Come About
There was nothing more he could do. It was no longer up to him.
When Sean first met Timothy, itโd been at Charlestonโs Bridge Church, where Sean had started volunteering with the homeless community. Theyโd become friends, shared stories, meals and laughs. Sean had taken him to the library, helped him build a rรฉsumรฉ, given him the resources he needed to land a job paying $12 an hour, a cell phone and a bed at a shelter. But Timothy had lost the bed and the job. And, after struggling to help him back on his feet for a few months, Sean had lost touch with the man.
โI try not to blame myself for having to step away and say, โIย need to hand this over to you and let you be your own advocate now,โ but I do think about him every day,โ says Sean, who firstย got involved in Charlestonโs homeless population through volunteering with Lowcountry Community Outreach and then through running shelters for the American Red Cross during Hurricane Irma.
โWorking the shelter was what did it: For 48 hours, I talked to these people, listening to their stories about their families, eating with them, playing card games. They taught me things: They taught me some really cool card games,โ laughs Sean. โI was able to make a connection with them that was deep and meaningful. At that point, there was no turning back.โ
Since then, he has not only continued his casework and volunteer outreach with Bridge Church and with the American Red Crossโ disaster action team, but also interned with the American Red Cross, where he serves as a youth engagement partner, leading Red Cross Clubs across the Lowcountry to help them prevent, prepare and respond to emergencies.
โOne thing Iโve learned from this work is that I have to manage my expectations of what I can do,โ says Sean. โAs someone in public health, I like to grab hold of these really big problems that donโt have single solutions โ and the solutions are not easy. So you have to manage your expectations and accept that youโre just laying the groundwork. So, in the case of homelessness, the way I can start to make a difference is to start to understand the different components, and that starts with just having a conversation.โ
The conversations that have come from his work with the homeless have taught Sean some important lessons โ not just about the risk factors, the symptoms, the prevention and the complexity of homelessness, but about himself and his own challenges.
Heโs learned that he canโt always do it alone, that he needs to ask for help, that he needs to set boundaries in his own life and take care of himself before he can take care of others โ something that his mom, Sherry, expressed to him through the symbolic gift of an oxygen mask. As any flight attendant will tell you, you have to take care of yourself before assisting others.
โHeโs learning his limitations โ that he canโt save the world all at once,โ says Sherry, adding that Seanโs experience with Timothy was a huge teachable moment. โHe thought heโd failed Timothy, and we had a lot of discussions about that. โYou went above and beyond,ย and you got all these things done, but Timothy wasnโt ready for it,โ I told him.
โSo, for both Timothy and Sean, the experience was a lesson in failing forward,โ she continues. โBecause every time you fail, you come out of the ashes and you are a new person. You take those experiences with you and you just keep growing in wisdom and strength. And donโt let the failure consume you and be stuck in that time with fear. But go ahead and move forward โ and thatโs the strength right there.โ
And that strength continues as he continues to move forward. Sean graduated in May with more fire in his belly than everย before, with more confidence in his abilities than heโs ever had.
โThe goal of education is to help students find their passionย and let their passion find them,โ says Creed. โSean does bothย of those things โ he has real enthusiasm and passion for very specific interests but is also always open to something new.ย More than any other student, I can be sure that he will neverย stop learning.โ
As of now, Sean has his eyes on a master of public health in epidemiology, a bachelor of science in nursing and then joiningย the U.S. Public Health Service as a commissioned officer beforeย he goes into epidemiological intelligence with the Centers for Disease Control.
โBasically, I want to be the boots on the ground doing the intelligence and reconnaissance work of disease,โ he says. โKind of like sailing, youโre working with an invisible force and trying to manage it. Youโre doing the same thing with disease: You canโt see it, but youโre trying to make these changes that ultimately work in your favor, or, in this case, societyโs favor.โ
โI know that whatever he does once he leaves the College, itโll help people who are less fortunate and make their lives better. And you canโt be any more special than that,โ says Fisher, noting that his own life is better because of Seanโs influence. โHeโs given me really important tools that show me the value in what I can offer โ and heโs taught me that I can help people.โ
And, as Sean is the first to tell you, learning that you do have the power to make a difference โ no matter what youโre up against โ well, that can take you as far as you want to go.