Noway! You were seriously going to become a nun? Never would have guessed that.

Interesting. I think my parents (ok, probably my mom) would have been happy if I had at least considered a vocation to the priesthood. I did consider the diaconate at one point, but the dissolution of my marriage sort of scuttled those plans (plus I really needed to get out of graduate school at that point). Alls well that ends well, right?

@Evie I've always been fascinated by cultures and beliefs and how they develop and why people do the things they do. I love learning about religions. I also love helping people. I feel strong empathy towards others and seeing someone suffering affects me more than the average person.

@Brian- all I can tell you is to follow your gut and the choice will be right. Don't make any decisions from fear. Choose what makes you most happy and don't worry about 10 years from now. The truth is that you can and will do what you want to do. Managing others is a major plus point in industry. So it is great if you are managing people now. It sounds like you really want to work in a company next so you should put all of your intention and focus on that.

@TJ- most certainly, not being allowed to marry in the chuch the first time around and then some of the terrible things I was told by priests regarding my marriage, was a huge reason why I left the church completely. But in retrospect, not being married in the church means I could still enter a sisterhood in my later years, I think. So maybe it will be something I'll pursue later in life....when I don't have any more crazy female hormones :-).

@yannisguerra- I did almost leave science once because I thought the hurdles were insurmountable and I felt like a big failure. But I craved the knowledge and need the intellectual challenge. Even when I was in marketing, I felt too far from science and I wasn't happy. I found a way to return again.

I was raised in a strong Catholic environment, being Italian, so as a child I was not aware of religious conflicts causing the pain and suffering in the world that it does.  It never occurred to me as a youngster that faith can hurt as much as help and that the rules were made by men and not the late, great, JC himself. (The beauty of childhood naivete!)

I don't go to church anymore. I don't follow any religion.

Much of the work of Sisters is focused on helping the poor, sick, homeless, and children without concern for proselytizing and without care about the faith of the people they help. I have never associated the work of nuns with negativity.

(I did work with some Carmelite nuns that were a pretty mean bunch, but I don't think it had anything to do with being Catholic.)

Mother Theresa worked with the poorest of the poor and the outcasts. She didn't judge or condemn people. Some people really do walk the walk. Others just talk the talk. Not all the religious are bad people, is what I am trying to say.

In the end I think it does not matter where you choose to focus your efforts of service to others or whether it is with a religious group, your friends, the PTA, or the LabSpaces blog site.  There are endless opportunities to help people.

When I was in graduate school and totally broke my mom used to say to me "You are your own charity. Donate to yourself."  So true.