Why I didn't become a nun

Discernment and how you serve

Growing up is recognizing your own selfishness and/or cowardice.

Social media and global connection have one thing clear—a lot of people join service professions to facilitate their own needs rather than to actually serve.

This is why becoming a priest or a nun has a years-long discernment process—to weed out the people who don’t belong there.

People like me.

Like all high schoolers, I waffled on what to do with my life. It was the late 90s, so college was the default. Anything else was frowned upon. But I didn’t want to. I was sick of school.

That left two equally appealing options: Join the military, just like every generation of my family since we stepped off the boat

Or…

Join the convent.

That was an option that surprised everyone around me. I toyed with the goth look, swore like a sailor, and loved tattoos, motorcycles, and hard rock music.

But I loved the church too. I loved going to Mass and the clarity of purpose I always felt after receiving the Eucharist.

I also loved the idea of li…