N Is For Nun

I haven't struggled with a single letter until I got to "N."  I was completely at a loss.  And then I remembered a story from my youth...

For those of you that don't know, I was raised Catholic.  And though I no longer attend a Catholic church, I still have a lot of love and respect for the amazing people that raised me up there, including the people in the following story.  I'm simply laughing at the situation, never at the people.

The summer before my friends and I entered high school, the three Catholic churches from our area offered a field trip for young women.  We were going to The City to see several Catholic momuments and churches and we would be staying all night at the Mother House (which was housing for retired nuns).  I was excited to hang out with my girlies and have a good time, so I gladly went.  We spent the first day touring I can't even remember where.  When we arrived at the Mother House, we swam in their Olympic-size heated pool, ate popcorn and watched TV in the great room, and then went upstairs to our dormitory-style rooms where we talked ourselves to sleep. 

The next morning, we took a tour of the Mother House and of the offices that were attached.  We met a nun who was a librarian, another who was a travel agent, so on and so forth.  It was then they took us into the chapel balcony for the hard sell.  Our Sister (who really is an amazing lady) and the others, extolled the virtues of being a nun.  You could travel the world, you could hold a job, it wasn't just working in a church.  We listened politely until they said something like, "If you're a nun, you can do anything you want."  It was then my best friend leaned over and whispered, "Yeah, except have sex!"  And it echoed in that pin-drop quiet church like nothing I've ever heard.  And all prentense was over, we collapsed into giggles, the conversation effectively over. 

And that my friends, is why N is for nun, but I never got invited to be one.