People become JWs for a variety of reasons. I just read an interesting passage in a novel that I think applies to many of us to some way. The main character in the book is a retired military policeman. In the scene, he is discussing the reasons folks join the Army:
"Some join because they want to shoot heavy weapons and blow things up. Some join because it's preordained. But most join because they're looking for cohesion and trust and loyalty and comaraderie. They're looking for the brothers and the sisters and the parents they haven't got anyplace else."
Reviewing my own reasons for becoming a dub, I relate to "looking for brothers and sisters and parents I didn't have." My extremely dysfunctional family broke up when I was 13. My parents took turns with us for a few years and then we all wound up living with various friends and relatives. My sisters scattered across the country. By our late-teens, were all basically orphans. We were estranged from our parents for most of the rest of our lives. And the siblings all led lives separate and apart from one another and didn't communicate much over the years. So, for me, the dubs became my "family."
We all know many dubs whose life course was "preordained," who were born in and are third or fourth generation and are given no alternative.
I think the shooting and blowing things up part also applies to some of us. Not literally but figuratively, of course, but perhaps for the opportunity to "overturn entrenched things."
Can you relate to any of these? And what was it that primarily motivated you to join the JWs?