Why the remark "So you're gonna be a nun" is so inappropriate/condescending

I've had multiple experiences where I'm talking to people in a Catholic setting, and I suggest that perhaps some people won't get married or don't feel called to marriage. A response I've heard far too often and continuously is, "So you're gonna be a nun" or "Well, if  you wanna be a nun." I want to explain why this is such an inappropriate and condescending remark both to people who do feel called to religious life and people who do not feel that calling.

First off, this remark implies that religious life is not a beautiful, unique calling but rather a "fallback" vocation. It implies that it is a vocation for the "leftovers." This is such a rude disregard and disrespect towards the beautiful and unique calling Christ gives to some individuals to religious life. This comment also put various vocations on a pedestal in a "great-than-thou" complex by implying that those called to marriage are called to a greater vocation than those called to religious life (the "fallback" vocation).

Secondly, this remark implies that there are only two ways to find fulfillment in life, and that the goal of life is either marriage or religious life. No wonder the world is so focusing on everyone having an equal right/opportunity to enter into an institution called "marriage" when we worship the institution not as one possible way to journey to a destination (God/heaven) but rather as the destination itself. If the two destinations are either marriage or religious life, what place is there for those who feel called to neither? How do these people (note this includes some people with same-sex attraction, some with opposite-sex attraction, some with both, some either neither...) a sense of great belonging and calling and respect for their calling?

One's vocation is the place/position and context in which God calls a person to love. This means that a person might have multiple vocations throughout their lifetime. This also means that no one needs to be "waiting for their vocation" but can can recognize that the ways in which they are being called to love here and now is their current vocation. Someone may be living their vocation as a teacher, another as a supportive friend or aunt, another through a life or service at home or abroad... There is NO LIMIT to the beautiful ways God calls us to live and love, and I wish we would recognize that more and not put a limit on His goodness or on the word "calling."

~*~

Let's stop putting the vocations on tiers and assuming there are only two types of vocations.

If we truly want to celebrate God's Church is its FULLNESS and the equal beauty in each individual's calling, let's open our hearts and make room. Let's be mindful of our words and avoid perpetuating remarks that build a culture based on these these blind assumptions which put a limit on the expanse of God's goodness.