Clearly Claire: Stuck in Catholicism for a Week

I am not by any means "That Religious Guy," but that doesn't mean that my family isn't religious. My family used to wake me up at 9 o'clock every Sunday morning to go to church and I would sit bored through the whole thing. The only thing I ever liked about church was the singing. I love to sing.

Slowly, though, my parents decided that they weren't going to go every week, then we became Christmas and Easter Catholics. We would go to church on the important holidays, you know, the day Christ rose from the dead and the day he was born. A few years ago, though my parents decided they were too busy making Easter dinner to go to church, so we only went on Christmas. Last year, we didn't go to church on Christmas either. How can God compete with opening presents?

So, you may ask how in the world a person who hates church and doesn't go could wind up in a convent for a week, up at 6 a.m. every morning praying to God that I didn't jump off a cliff. I went to the convent almost two months ago and am still recovering from the horrible week

My great aunt is a nun and I love her so much, but I would never want to be like her. They had prayer meetings everyday that lasted an hour. I could barely get through one hour of church on Sunday and she had to go everyday. I felt like such a sinner.

I also decided to visit the college located near the convent and had to spend two hours watching a play about Jesus and his disciples singing songs about the grace of God. It took all I had to not burst out laughing when some girl started singing a love song to Jesus. But my eyes were open to a whole new world.

I realized that to a lot of people, religion is everything. It keeps their families together and can unity a community, it just isn't for me. I am a sinner, through and through. I was born to be one and I can't change that, but I don't really want to. I like that I am not spiritual. The week was horrible, but it someways it was good, because I learned about a different place where, even though it doesn't make sense to me, it makes sense to others.

So I won't be going to that college, or becoming a nun anytime soon, but I might go to church more....

Okay, Maybe not.