Wow, I haven't posted on here in a long time... I lurked, back in the winter of '00, and posted in early '01 a few times. Looking back on those posts, and other stuff written, it amazes me how much can change... I thought to integrate myself into this web community I'd tell some of my story...
I was not raised in the truth. I fell in love with a JW boy when I was 20 and married him. I got baptized in Nov of 99, against my better judgement. I was in love and WANTED to believe in his faith, WANTED to believe in the promises of a perfect world, and WANTED to believe I had found the indisputable truths of life. It just didn't happen that way. I couldn't believe the teachings- things just didn't jive. I started doing research secretly on the web, and sure enough, a lot of the people felt the same way as I did. My husband knew I had a lot of doubts, but it was absoulte truth to him, and so I was labelled as falling into "apostate" and "independent" thinking...
I was unhappy as hell; hated life. After a crazy, depressive year, I got some help from doctors and counsellors. I knew that the life I was in wasn't making me happy, and I had to change that. Trying to gain some independence, I started a new job in the fall of 2000 because I was thinking about leaving my husband(and the jw religion behind.)
I feel like I have to justify my actions here, which is probably just insecurity...I guess it suffices to say that I tried EVERYTHING I could think of to save my marriage, and my faith. I was not treated well by my husband, though maybe his intentions were good. The congregation tried to help me, but their attempts were futile.
After a lot of soul searching and sleepless nights, and even sometimes prayers, I left in February of 01. I'm 23. Here it is almost a full year later, and I'm living a completely different life. I'm in a different country, surrounded by different people. It's strange, but also exhilerating. I'm starting to accept, at least for now, that I don't have the answers to all of life's questions. And maybe, that's ok. Life deals some shitty blows sometimes, but we are still all responsible for the choices we make. If we learn from our mistakes, maybe that's what matters. I still beleive in God, but I don't know to what extent. I have no interest in any sort of religion right now. Maybe I will down the road- I'm just not sure.
That's where I'll stop. I look forward to meeting people on this board...
alli
(I also think dubla is really cute btw!! ;)