How different are you from 10 years ago?

by JH 29 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  helncon

  10 years ago i was nearing my 21st birthday!

  I would have been married almost 3 years.

  I had just lost my first child and my father in law with in months of each other.

  I was insecure within my relationship to my hubby.

  I had close friends and partied HARD!!!

  But now things are clearer i made a promise to myself on 31st dec 2006 that 2007 was going to be about me!

  I have a clearer head a better outlook on life even if things are not so well.

  I am happy to be ME! And i am working on a better ME!

  Helen
• 

  Finally-Free

  I was a JW - now I'm not. I was married, now I'm not. I was challenged by my new career - now the challenge is continuing in it. I used to work hard to please others. Now I wish they'd f*ck off and die. I no longer get excited about anything, except for my bird. He can make me giggle like a little girl.

  W
• 

  Warlock

  YOU WANT ME TO REMEMBER 10 YEARS AGO??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  I CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  Warlock
• 

  Zico

  I was 10... so like Richie, I'm quite different now.
• 

  Gill

  Ten Years ago, I was a mind slave of the WT literally living every day in fear of impending doom, impending meetings and impending Jehovah's Witnesses criticism of absolutely everything.

  Now, I wake up happy every day. I accept everything could fall apart tomorrow, but I live to give to my nearest and dearest and take care of them all and to grow mentally. That's is all any of us have any way, it is just that we don't always realise it, or want to realise it.

  The fear is all behind.

  Finally, I have happiness and peace.

  Naturally, certain irritations remain as a constant remind of the past, ie JW relatives. But these are 'put to bed' in their own little box when they get too rowdy and life goes on with them at the distant distant back of my mind.

  Everything is much improved. Health is fantastically better. I know that can always change, but it is good to accept things as they are for a while without constantly fearing catastrophe.

  If I could be ten years younger , I'd say NO WAY!
• 

  Crumpet

  Ten years ago I weighed about 40 pounds less. I had broken up with my boyfriend of 3 years and was working towards reinstatement no.3. I spent 8 months living like a hermit entirely alone and speaking to no one except when I had to at work, but attending all meetings without fail. I exercised 4 hours a day to pass the time when I wasnt studying for the meetings right down to actually singing all the songs. (Oh my god i was scary!)

  I got reinstated and committed a dfing offence on the same night (smoking) and decided to give it up as a bad job and started partying with a vengeance.

  ten years on I have just broken up with my boyfriend of nine years. I am living like a hermit, exercising 2 hours a day and studying criminology the rest of the time. I get to communicate with the outside world a bit more than I used to. Funny how things come full circle in terms of personal rituals and habits.

  (good question JH - definitely one of your better ones)
• 

  lisavegas420

  exercising 2 hours a day

  OMG...who does that? Here I thought I was doing good when I squeezed in 20 minutes a day.

  Do you do it all at once, or several times though out the day?

  10 years ago, my 16 year old daughter told me she was pregnant. Now she has three children.

  I'm still married to the same man. I've lived in the same house for almost 10years. Even though much is the same on the outside, I feel like a different person.

  lisa
• 

  Tuesday

  When I was 16 my whole comfortable life that I had built in the orginization in my early teens came crashing down. Two of my friends stopped going to meetings and another friend just disappeared to basically never be seen again, The "cool" ministerial servant moved away (and by "cool" I mean he listened to the same music as me and was the only one who was nice to me), and the older woman I had a huge crush on and that I genuinly liked as a friend as well got disfellowshipped. I took my SAT's scoring over 1500 which guaranteed me a spot in nearly any college which caused more pressure in the orginization. I was basically handed a spot in a school play because I was in theatre class and had a mid-term assignment to do, and I didn't have a way to get out of it really because it was a class assignment. I was constantly being councelled about having long hair (which was nothing compared to now).

  So yeah, life's alot better now. I'd say I know myself alot more than I did then, I swear alot less than I did then. I'm alot more relaxed, I cook better, play guitar better, but overall 10 years ago was the last straw in my witness life. God when I actually write out all the stuff that was going on with me back then, I'm surprised I didn't crack.
• 

  greendawn

  Becoming more mature as should after all be the case with everyone, with time we gain depth and a wider perspective of life and when we look back we say how immature I was ten or twenty years ago. We will be saying the same in twenty years time about our current state.
• 

  LongHairGal

  Besides being ten years older, I am ten years smarter. There are things that will never again be tolerated by me that I tolerated while being active in the religion. For example, I will not allow people to overstep their boundaries, I will not allow anybody to disrespect me and I will not allow anybody to make me feel guilt. These things happened gradually and not overnight. For they would never be tolerated if they happened suddenly. I am reminded of the story of the frog in the pot who didn't realize he was being slowly cooked because the water gradually got hotter.

  Whether my new state of mind has to do with age and lack of tolerance or whether it is because I have all the "facts" now, I do not know.

  LHG