The city I live in has two major universities, and a few other smaller schools including a community college. Every year a couple JW kids from out of state or from out in the boonies stay on campus in the city, and they end up coming to the KH I attend. They get treated as if they're "marked." Sure, "the friends" will converse with them briefly but there's a weird suspicion directed at these young adults. The most bizarre part of it all is when we have parts on pioneering, or lessons in the WT Study with paragraphs on young people pioneering. Those lessons always include a paragraph or two discouraging higher education. It makes for an awkward meeting when you have four or five JW students from out of town and "the friends" are dissing college in their comments. Last year, there was a lesson in the spring that made me feel embarrased to be a part of the congregation. The WT study article didn't directly come out and say higher education was a sin, but by the time those commenting were finished with those paragraphs related to school, you would have thought attending college was tantamount to rape or murder. The whole time I was sitting towards the back, on the left side of the hall. From that vantage point, I could see the out of town students looked very uncomfortable being there. After that lesson, one of them who was a nice young gal, never came back after that lesson. That meeting disgusted me.
When I was wrapping up high school I made a mistake that I've regretted for a long time. I was in 10th grade, and a presentation was done about learning a trade at a neighboring school. They gave us a letter that summerized the program. I folded up the paper and put it in my back pocket. My mother who is an uber dub, 2nd generation pioneer, was washing clothes and pulled that paper out of my back pocket. She saw the word "trade", and thought, "well Jesus was a carpenter. A perfect carpenter. My son can learn a trade too!" So the course was set. From high school until my late twenties, I went from dead end job to dead end job. Eventually I went to a one year Medical based school that got me in a better position nowadays. But being honest, I've had a resentment towards my mother ever since, and lately I'm developing a hatred toward the WT Society. They shouldn't be able to have that much influece over our lives. They're overstepping their boundaries, and I hate them for it.