I’m a disciplined person with a reasonable amount of drive. I’ve had an unconventional life, which is the main reason I wrote a memoir.
I was raised in a Catholic family. My launch into college got thwarted before it materialized, however. Instead of becoming a coed, I entered a convent and became a nun.Catholics took my decision in stride.
Non-Catholics treated me like I’d lost my mind. They were the correct ones in that debate. I did lose my mind. It was hiding in a corner somewhere, or a pocket, or a closet. But it was definitely hiding.
I was so mixed up. Once I finally left, the amount of brainwashing that perplexed me in there, needed heavy-duty detergents and scrubbers to clean it all out. I threw away all my previously absorbed rules and started over, creating new ones from scratch. My marriage was supposed to help me hurry the process. It did, and it didn’t. Honestly, I thought I’d never recover.
-Gretchen Grossman