Don't read this if you're depressed.

sleepy

Sometimes I think about all the time i waisted as a witness and it makes me shudder.
I don't want to dwell on negative things but , what the hell I'm happy today.
I'd thought I'd try and work out how much time I've lost.
I was brought on on the org and left at 27.
If I spent an average (even as a child in a pushchair) of 5 hours in meetings 1 hour either side getting ready travelling etc(so thats 3).1 hour studying for meetings and talks etc.2 hours on the minsistry.
That gives me a rought average of 11 hours a week.( really it takes up more time than this)
times that by 52 then by 27 gives me 15444 hours.
Divide by 24 gives 643.5 days 24 hour days.But we all know a day is really 12 hours the rest is eating sleeping etc.
So. Times it by 2 =1286 days which we will divide by 365 (for a year)
=3.52 which is roughly 3 and a half years solid going to meetings on the min and reading watchtowers!
This doesn't take into account pioneering , assemblies and other things.
So of my 27 years 3 and a half were completely wasted and are of no use to me.
Plus all the catching up I've now got to do.
Is this more than you lose by smoking 20 cigarettes a day.
Watchtowers should come with a health warning,
Danger :reading these has been proven to shorten your life.

patio34

Hi Sleepy,

That's one way to look at it. However, the flip side is that you have learned a valuable lesson on how not to be duped. It seems to me that it's important to analyze what happened and how to prevent it from ever happening again. You were smart and got out relatively early. Congratulations!

Pat
UADNA (Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America)

Englishman

Sleepy,

I regret nothing in my life. My mistakes have sometimes been horrendous, but that's the way we learn.

Englishman.

Shimmer

Sleepy,

I agree with Pat and Englishman that there is two ways to look at a situation. You can dwell on the negative side or you can choose to focus on the positive.

Such as: You would not be the person you are today if you had a different past. You have many more years ahead of you to live your life in a much more positive way. And like Englishman said, you've learned a valuable lesson from this time in your life.

Find your passion or purpose in life and make a conscious effort to reach that goal everyday. I'm working on that one myself. A good friend of mine told me that if I make an effort to reach my goal, doors will be opened up that I never dreamed of. So instead of waiting for my purpose in life to find me, I'm going to go out and pursue that purpose.

Good luck on your journey in life, just because you've been held back for the first 27 years doesn't mean the journey is over yet.

Shimmer

Maybe being oneself is alway an acquired taste.-----PATRICIA HAMPL

dungbeetle

as maximus loved to say--it's not the destination, it's the journey. If you hadn't been a witness, you wouldn't be here with us!!!!

UADNA-US (Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America-United States)

rhett

I think the view of "I don't regret being a JW and all the stupid things I did because of it" is a load of crap. Not really because of all the things that I missed out on and everything but because of all the people that I either just didn't spend enough time with or because I rejected them for nothing more than their religous beliefs. To me, saying you don't regret the things you did as a JW means you also don't regret the way you treated some wonderful people who TRULY cared about you. I know I certainly wish that I was never a JW for that reason alone. Yeah yeah yeah, I know I'm less likely to be duped like that again but using that logic someone who has one of their arms ripped off by a lion at the zoo should be happy that they now know not to do that and that their other arm is still there. Sure, they learned a valuable lesson but look at the cost it took to learn it.

I don't feel like Satan but I am to them.

sleepy

I'm not a negative person, I just like doing sums.

I always try to look on the bright side of things, and yes you learn from mistakes.Sometimes you learn things that you could not have known otherwise.
Hell if i wasn't a witness I wouldn't be siting here now in my house with my wife who I met at an assembly.
But it still would be nice if those mistakes were never made.

Nowfree

Another way to look at the time spent as a JW:

You are now 27 years old.

You have left a mind controlling cult at a relatively young age.

You know you will never ever go back to it.

You will now spend the rest of your life doing what YOU want to do and not what you are TOLD you want to do.

If you had never been a JW, then you might reach a crisis in your life at perhaps age 35, come across Jehovah's Witnesses - think it sounds a "nice" religion and join. Only to realise at the age of maybe 55 that you have made a mistake.

To start your life again at 55 is more difficult ( I would think??) than at age 27.

Nowfree

Don't read this if you're depressed.

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