When I grow up
Fresh and clean
Number one chick when I step out on the scene

(* I’m convinced that instead of “I wanna have groupies”, they’re really singing “I wanna have boobies”, but that’s just me.)

The real question is: what do young women in Singapore really want to be when they grow up? Celebrities? Sex symbols? Magazine cover girls? Perhaps. But here’s a deeper, more fulfilling challenge to all – become a nun.

A friend (who hasn’t been updated his blog much) commented to me tonight that young women in Singapore just don’t consider the religious life – as evidenced by the lack of young women in convents around the island. (Just as an aside, many of the nuns I’ve met are so full of life, you would be forgiven for thinking they were younger than they really are.) He mentioned that at the recent World Youth Day in Sydney, he encountered a group of vivacious, bright young ladies and was surprised to discover they were all nuns from the Sisters of Life order originating from New York.

These are women who play a contemplative role and yet live out their faith through action, driven by the spirituality that all life is sacred, especially that of the unborn.

Here in Singapore, we are equally blessed to have religious communities that live out their faith through action, including the Canossians, the Carmelite Sisters, the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary and the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood.

May you find that the convents offer you a life that is worth living, in union with Jesus, the best man you could ever ask for.