Young women, are you contemplating next year’s plans? Perhaps finishing school and wondering about the next steps? Perhaps not quite sure you’re on the right track with your studies? Ready to get out of the workplace and into the books?
Theology. Philosophy.
I know you think I’m kidding.
Who does that? Can you even get a job doing that?
Good questions. Here’s your answers: Not enough women. And, yes, though I can’t promise you’ll make millions.
Who needs all those big ideas anyway?
You do. Those nearest and dearest to you. Those you have yet to meet. Those in your parish. Your friends. Your country. Your politicians. Everybody needs something of these big ideas.
From a distance, theology and philosophy sound like the sort of thing for fat, pipe-smoking, balding, old white guys. Hardly.
From Action to Contemplation
Frankly, as someone who started out managing stockpiles of fuel, car parts, medicines and nutrition supplies in the desert of South Sudan and the jungle of Congo, I have found my way from that bustly, hustly, grunty, daily work to another kind of work. An intellectual work.
I am captured, arrested, by what I have found.
And I need to tell you, if you are a young woman contemplating your path into the future and you were thinking of studying anything in the realm of social sciences, politics, economics, languages, humanities, literature, history or you simply are attracted to turning over ideas and teasing out their implications for real life…do yourself a favour, consider theology and philosophy.
Not just any theology or philosophy, but a Catholic education. And even if you have some doubts about your academic ability, take a leap of faith, you might surprise yourself.
Trust me, you won’t regret it. Continue reading
- Lucy O’Donoghue comes from Auckland and lives in Bangkok, Thailand with her ‘lads’ – an Irish American husband, a baby boy, and a rambunctious dog.