My Story (page 3)

betterdaze

You too, Vernon Williams, welcome!

~Sue

Black Sheep

Thank you for sharing that with us, 38 Years.

I wish I had had your nounce in my youth. You woke up far earlier than I did.

Welcome to the forum.

Cheers

Chris

Crumpet

Such a great story! You have gumption.

Does this mean you've never married etc?

What did you study when you went to college? And what is your degree in? and did it improve your working resources. I am studying late in life for the same reason - to try and improve my finances long term - only not sure what I want to do or that the things I enjoy doing are necessarily going to actually help me get a job!

tnangel73

Welcome 38. Thank you for sharing your story. I, too, never wrote a letter to the society because I felt just like you, they didn't own me. I felt like somehow that still recognized their controlling , cultish ways.Eventually though, I was DF'd about 8 years after I had stopped going to meetings. It made me feel so much freer and happier after that. :D

38 Years

Thanks everyone! I didn't want to make the story too long, but a few months after I told my Mom that I was quitting, she decided she needed to talk to an Elder. It was bothering her and she wanted to get some advice. We didn't attend the same congregation. I told her she should do what she thinks is best, but she needs to keep in mind that she is opening a Pandora's box and they could decide to disfellowship me. I also told her that if they disfellowshipped me it would be like someone quitting a job and then tracking them down to fire them. I reminded her of how the brothers lost my records. When I moved to out of state, the brothers requested that I have them sent from the other state I lived in, so I did. When I changed congregations to another territory, they lost them. All those 30+ years of history are gone. (Where would they write down my DF if I don't exist? ). I was so inactive anyway, going to Sunday morning meetings a few times a year and to the Memorials. When I went, people bearly knew me except when I said my last name, and then they knew my mom. Anyway, I told her she risked that she could be told to never speak to me again and they would put a lot of pressure on her. I have a little boy now, and I told her she would make it hard on him if she had to shun his mother. She said she would never do that and I was still her daugher.

She decided to talk to the elder anyway. She said she could trust him. On her way to his house, she had a car accident and totalled her car. She came out without a scratch. When she told me, I could bearly keep from bursting out laughing, but I did after I hung up the phone. To my knowledge, she has never spoken to an Elder about me. I still laugh about the irony is all of this.

unique1

It is so neat to hear experiences of older ones who were there during 75. Thanks for sharing.

moshe

Welcome 38 years- if you had joined 4 years ago you'd be a Jedi by now! Glad to hear you have your freedom now.

TooBad TooSad

Thanks for sharing your story. I have felt the same way as you do for over 20 years.

I pretend to be a JW and put in fake hours only because of my family. If I did not

have a family that were JW's I would never set foot in a kingdom hall again.

Again, thanks for sharing your courage.

Take care.

38 Years

Crumpet,

My degree is in Health Science but now I work in Marketing. Go figure. I wasn't a great high school student (the 1975 thing was a great excuse to use). After high school I worked my way up from Burger King, bank teller, then secretary. In college, I didn't know what I wanted to do either, but I do know that that piece of paper opened up a lot more job interviews and job offers. I knew it would no matter what my major was. I'm still not career minded, but now I have a job I love with a comfortable modest salary. I can support myself and my son without fear of going back to minimum wage and low wages. Hope this helps.

Missanna

38 Congrats at getting out. I know it's a struggle. just know that here you are welcome and loved

My Story

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