wow, that's amazing - so many replies so soon!! well, I got baptised in 1969 (I was 15) and left in 1991. I had been a full-time pioneer for 20 years by then. Always on the platform at assemblies and conventions 'cos of my long service. I'd go to different towns and sometimes people would walk up to me in the street because they recognised me from assemblies.. so to go from that to having no friends and no career (and no savings, no home of my own) overnight..... well, it was difficult to say the least. The JWs I left behind said I took the easy option by leaving - that's so wrong I have to laugh, though in fact it was tragic! But I built myself a career and I learned to make friends - a note about the definition of friends in a minute - and I have my own home. Friends - yeah, well, I find people confide in me an helluva lot (all those years' practice listening to people in the ministry, I guess) and I'm really really popular... but almost no-one really knows me!! not properly... they either don't know about my background or they don't understand it, so they really don't understand me - because my background as a JW was such an important (and long) part of my life and it has shaped me and I will never be rid of its effects entirely.... and it's quite lonely having this background and no-one you mix with on a daily basis really understands you. Yes, I am lonely even though I'm the most popular person I know. It's sad. I cry every day, even after all these years. Thank you to all of you for welcoming me. I'll be interested to see how it goes, how I fit in. I'll certainly try. | 
