Education, education, education....

by snare&racket 24 Replies latest jw friends

  • snare&racket
    snare&racket

    An update on my life post education....

    As the Governing Body continue to denounce higher education, reality continues to prove their words ignorant, ill informed and blatant lies.

    I am proud and astonished to say I have just been accepted for a University Teaching Hospital post. I have a seriously sought after, senior house officer job in Intensive Care, Endocrinology and Clinical Pharmacology. It's one of the largest teaching hospitals in the UK and Europe and my senior is a well known professor who was awarded an OBE for his research. Ironically, he wrote some of the very textbooks that got me here and now he has offered me a post!

    I simply could not have even imagined any of this ten years ago. I would not have even laughed at the idea.....because I wouldn't have known what any of those jobs were!

    I was an unschooled, ex pioneer, ex Bethelite with ZERO prospects, on the cusp of losing my religion. I was sad, in turmoil and truly lost, I knew the inevitable was coming because my conscience would not allow me to stay in the WT bubble, but I had NO IDEA what awaited me in the future.......I left and immediately went back to school aged 27.

    Aged 19, I once partook in an assembly item where I spoke highly of pioneering and bethel life in contrast to the futility of careers and education. As a punishment, I will be ashamed for as long as I remember for unquestionably repeating such indoctrinated bull-shit! All the data says quite the opposite to the uneducated Governing Body and who was I a 19 year old kid, to talk about the futility of achievement? Again I was simply repeating the words of men who had never achieved anything but church appointment, the only prerequisite being loyalty and a closed mind.

    While I am able to come here and encourage education and its rewards, I shall, unashamedly so. I celebrate ambition and achievement because it is just so rewarding to the soul. In addition, education leads to freedom of mind. After years enslaved to the whim of ignorant men in Brooklyn , a free mind is beautiful and empowering, it is like breathing for the first time in decades.....

    It is not ego that motivates me in writing this, though I am proud, it is the hope that someone decides to also pursue their life goals, because we only get one chance at them!


    IF you have thought about pursuing a career or going back to school......go order a prospectus now.....go call the nearest institution now.......go ask for a career advisor appointment now.

    Do it today!

    Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

    WB Yeats

  • clarity
    clarity

    Way to go Snare ....congratulations! Love the Yeats quote.

    Wishing you all the best.

    clarity

  • Tempest in a Teacup
    Tempest in a Teacup
    It is not ego that motivates me in writing this, though I am proud, it is the hope that someone decides to also pursue their life goals, because we only get one chance at them!

    I love how you said it. Thanks for sharing this and wishing you all the best for the future!


  • prologos
    prologos
    Content for you to have worked hard, to achieved, and then to be recognized and given an uplifting hand.
  • Xanthippe
    Xanthippe

    Congratulations Snare on your new job!

    When I started my degree after leaving the WTS it felt like my brain was made of rusty cogs that were creaking slowly around as I tried to apply myself to reading and getting myself to think. I actually enjoy thinking now, it's one of my favourite things.

    I have found myself becoming a neophile rather than a neophobe. Learning and experiencing new things is fun! When I think of sitting in a KH hearing the same boring nonsense over and over I can't believe I stuck it at all.

    I'm so glad you're having a great life after all your hard work.

    Edited to say for those in the UK who have to work and study to financially recover from a JW life, pioneering and so on, the Open University is a great way to do it.

  • Giordano
    Giordano

    An outstanding achievement! I rejoice in your decision to put childish beliefs behind you and actually do something with your life.

    Again I was simply repeating the words of men who had never achieved anything but church appointment, the only prerequisite being loyalty and a closed mind.

    My wife and I took a different path when we left the JW construct. in our mid 20"s..... we were pioneering where 'the need was great' and I was holding down no less then two major congregation positions (Assistant Presiding Minister, Ministry school servant) at any given time. This was in our mid twenties. Unfortunatly higher education was not a choice.

    We left with one high school diploma between us and no skills beyond common sense and the ability to work hard. Over the years we became self taught artists ........ photography for me, for my pioneer partner........ photography, then mixed media painting, sculpture and pottery.

    We ecked out a living and then a better living over the next 40 years. We won a variety of awards, shown and collected in museums through out the USA, published books, received grants, taught workshops and my lovely wife had a one person show recently at the Huntington Museum of Art .

    Today we are semi retired but our lives are full with family, friends and of course artists............. some internationally known.......all wonderful people.

    We even have two JW friends in our area who always show up for one of our local exhibitions and who are aware of our background.

    Thinking back It is amazing what one can accomplish using all of that extra time that we spent going to meetings, in field service, preparing for same, socializing within the JW world , attending assemblies......LOL

    There is an entire extra lifetime of productive pursuits one can experience........... free of the obligations imposed by the WTBTS


  • zeb
    zeb
    May your studies take further into the human experience that you may leave the world a better place.
  • The Searcher
    The Searcher

    Just being awakened is the greatest gift. Everything else is sweet icing on the cake!

    Have a good life and career.

  • adjusted knowledge
    adjusted knowledge

    I will be starting a nursing program this August, and I'm 38 years old. I plan on doing a 2 yr PA program several years after the nursing program, and then another 3 yr transition program to MD. I figure I'll be in my late 40s, but that is fine with me.

  • maksutov
    maksutov
    Awesome. Congrats!

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