Life continually offers us choices, and I am grateful for the path I have chosen. I deeply believe that God has a plan for my life. The decision I made years ago continues to bring me joy even though challenges inevitably arise along the way.
Still at university, I remember when I first started visiting the Daughters of St Paul at their convent in Adelaide. I began to gain an understanding of what community life was all about. I remember this odd feeling in the pit of my stomach – this way of life was oddly familiar yet very different. All I had ever known was family life. Community was like family but not the same as family. There were no blood ties here; yet the warmth and “at-homeness” I witnessed among the Sisters told me they were “sister” to one another.
I was born and raised in a Catholic family, something which is rare in a non-Christian country like Japan. For my secondary education I attended a nearby Catholic school where some of my teachers were Sisters so, as a young girl, it was almost natural for me to dream of becoming a Sister. Since I liked children very much, I just presumed that I would enter an educational religious Congregation.