Just out of college, I was hanging out in South Philly with some recent nursing graduates from an all girls college. All were very beautiful and idealistic, wanting to become nurses. Wanting to experience the big city and the challenges it presented to their careers.

One of them revealed that she'd planned to join the convent, and now that it was time to go, she had second thoughts. I explained that I was raised to live life to the fullest, and to pursue your doubts so they can be answered. That if she'd had doubts, not join the convent, given that it meant she'd be celibate for the rest of her life--never had experiencing the finer points of a young woman's vitality.

To me, it was pretty much a no-brainer, a decision join the convent required an absolute absence of doubt. To have reservations meant she should wait until it was clear in her head that the convent was her final choice in life.

Suddenly, without explanation, a week later, she'd entered the convent. I found it perplexing that a woman barely 21 could make such a swift and sudden commitment, after expressing such self-doubt. I had to question, did the Catholic church have such control over her that they could reel her in so easily? As if they knew her weaknesses; and the moment she was about to break free, forced her into the convent.

The Postulant is about a woman's self-doubt and her inability to control her direction in life. It's about love and confusion, and all that follows.

This young woman and her story had bounced around in my head for decades. I finally wrote it to get it out of my head. And the last I heard this young women was still a nun.