How did you fare in High School as a JW? (page 3)

perfect1

all my exs formed a band and then invited me over to hear them play.

So many things I regret not doing. Perhaps I could be better of, maybe not. But at least I wouldn't have to wonder what if what if. To stay out of trouble I had to be a loner or play basketball during lunch.

jwfacts

Many of the kids in my congregation suffered terribly at school. I was somewhat more normal, so survived and had a couple of friends to hang out with at lunch. However, I always felt like an alien, just an observer to what was going on around me.

atrapado So many things I regret not doing. Perhaps I could be better of, maybe not. But at least I wouldn't have to wonder what if what if.

I feel the same way. I am of an athletic build and was a good sprinter. Even now, I am fitter than many of my colleagues that are 15 years younger. I do wonder what could have been if I have concentrated on a sport of some sort from a young age.

atrapado

Paul I feel your pain. It bother me so much I couldn't play any sports at school. I had coaches come to be and ask me why I wasn't playing for the school. The other students I play basketball couldn't understand why I couldn't play I pioneer during those years to keep my mind off it but everytime I went to see the school played I felt very nostalgic because I wish and knew I could be playing with them(I haded to go only time I went was when they play the division championship in Sacramentos's Arco Arena). And then I would remember 1 John 2:17 and feel guilty for wishing I could play.

What really pissed me off is that even though I wasn't no allow to play later in life I moved to other halls where some of the young people would play for the school even some daughters from elders. I would feel cheated.

C6H12O6

So so... it was awkward as hell to explain these wacky WT beliefs to my teachers and classmates.

Suprisingly no body gave me a hard time about being a JW.

Instead I was giving myself a hard time by restricting myself from joining clubs, making close friends, going to proms & dances, reading "magic" books and watching R-rated movies in school.

It really sucked when I didn't have enough time for those school work and preparing for the meetings.

So I ended up sleeping 3 or 4 hours a night.

By the end of senior year, i graduated at the top 20% of my class w/ a 3.8 GPA and i got baptized.

Years later, I still wonder how did i manage all that w/o jumping off a bridge.

tl;dr: high school years as a jw were awkward and time/energy consuming

C6H12O6

And at the end I never got to attend my graduation because we were at a stoopid district convention.

Aww...cobaltcupcake, you're not the only person who didn't get to go to their high school graduation.

My family and i couldn't go to mine b/c the weather was too humid and hot.

blondie

Sports was not an issue for me, first being female, and second Title IX did not happen until I was out of school. There were no organized, competitive sports for girls. As to sports in school that seems to be a US thing. When I lived in Germany, sports was not offered at school but at community sports clubs. My German friends never could understand why sports was offered in US high schools.

Part of my background was having a non-jw father. He had non-jw friends and we socialized with them so I knew that the demonizing of non-jws was a fantasy in the minds of jws. I also socialized with my non-jw relatives who showed more kindness to me than the jws who considered me contaminated because my father was not a jw.

I have found that the non-jws I went to school with did not fit in any more than I did. I have been out of high school for just over 40 years and made contact with my classmates then. The boys who played sports said it played little in their later lives. The ones that were short, small, odd, got taller, got muscles, and made their oddness an asset. Some of the popular girls were on their 3rd marriage, some had lost family in sad ways that their "fame" and "fortune" did not protect them from.

Whoever we were or people thought we were in the past, is the past. What we have made of ourselves and are making of ourselves is what counts. It was not my fault that I was born in a family where father was a pedophile and mother was a drunk. But I wasn't doomed. Both are dead now but I am alive and enjoying it. So I don't and didn't let my parents poison my life and certainly not the WTS.

talesin

I only got to go one year, but LOVED it! It was so much bigger that I no longer 'stuck out' ,,, no more daily getting beaten up and bullied ,,, no more O Canada and being singled out for ridicule. I chose to take 'advanced' courses, and was no longer bored in class, and oh, I discovered football ... ahhh.... of course, my parents ended that by removing me from school, my mom could see that I just loved education too much. But at least I had my freshman year!

:)

t

LouBelle

I made it through school okay. There were a couple of witness girls that used to meet outside the assembly hall and do the daytext reading together while they had religious assemly. Initially it was a little embaressing because of all the questions but got used to it.

I love acting and sports - was only allowed to partake in plays if they were during school hours and dependent on the topic - had to turn down being the witch in Wizard of Oz - which was a shame - everyone wanted me to do it, I wanted to do it - wasn't allowed.

Wasn't allowed to go to my matric dance.

So missed out but thought I was doing the right thing because I was in the truth. Overall though I did alright.

AnnOMaly

Constantly anxious; always felt 'other'; had little confidence in myself. I had no long-term educational goals other than 'just do my best.' Any talents I may have had were not nurtured - opportunities to develop them were blocked either by 'twists of fate' or incompatibility with being a JW. There were other JWs who were at the same school and, as a group, the parents and us kids had to unitedly make the same stand on the same things - little room for individual consciences. Having a 'worldly,' streetwise, best friend there (which, thankfully, my parents allowed seeing as I didn't click with anyone at the KH) helped make school tolerable, even pleasant at times. The last year at HS was happier. I was growing in confidence, doing better with schoolwork, and I'd fallen for an older JW boy from another town who became my dh by the time I was 20.

How did you fare in High School as a JW?

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