Hello all you wonderful people on the "evil" interwebs. ;)
I'm joining this site once again because I forgot my old username and such. I like the new layout!
My username is what it is because that was the last convention I went to. They handed out that mind numbing video on being "Jehovah's friend".
I'm a born in. Both of my grandmother's converted when both of my parents were young so all of my immediate family are JWs. I left a couple years ago. I am 21 years old. I have never really been "in". I hated the whole thing since I was 5. Having to wear skirts when it was cold, having to fake a smile for the people I really didn't care to see all too much and i if I had any real choice I wouldn't have associated with them in the first place.
I grew up kind of poor. My dad had a job where he would be away one or two weeks at a time and be home on the weekends. We did go to meetings kind of frequently when I was little but eventually we just stopped going altogether. My mom has social anxiety and health issues so she never took us. So, as you could obviously guess we weren't exactly in "good standing". The funny thing is, it took them until I was about 18 for them to "reach out" and ask about us. My mom was definitely more strict than my dad was when it came to the doctrines. Though my dad believes in it, he is a really laid back pretty liberal witness. If it wasn't for him I never would have been able to get into the Legend of Zelda games which were a very big part of my childhood.. he played them as often as he could really.
I was a shy individual and kind of being on the poor side, I didn't really have any friends in the congregation, and not being able to hang out with "worldly kids" from school (who were better than any JW friends I ever had) I was a loner and only had my siblings to keep me company and interact with. I didn't get my first "friend" until 5th grade. We went to the same school together. I noticed she hadn't saluted the flag in the morning so I asked her if she was a Jehovah's witness (of course she was). My mom called her mom and the rest was history. She was a bossy individual and I felt she used me at times. But I was in no position to pass up "friends" or any other social interaction that didn't come from my siblings. We eventually drifted apart however...
My mother discovered the "apostate material" I had been reading and found out I had wanted to leave. My parents talked and decided to have me live with my grandmother. Now don't get me wrong, I love my grandmother always will but... she's a very gossipy lady who ADORES the spotlight. Anyway I ended up going to her hall and making another friend. She was a great girl! We had a lot in common. Eventually she confided in me that she was having certain feelings about the "truth" and I confided in her about mine (carefully though because she was still showing signs of believing somewhat). I miss her to this day...
After quite a bit of time I moved out of my grandmother's place and made it clear I wasn't interested in being in the religion anymore. I was never baptised so my family still talks to me (well my mom does anyway) but not in a buddy - buddy type situation of course.
I'm happy with the decision I made though. I love being able to be who I am and not having to be afraid to say what I think because my friends will leave me. I am now a very outgoing person and I have a lot of non-witness people who truly care about me. :)
I would add a bit more but I don't want to bore you guys to death!! Tell me about everything that's changed!! I know the bible colors are different now... So yeah, talk away! Looking for new friends. :)