by EmptyInside 15 Replies latest jw friends
Sounds like you are missing the your beliefs. I submit that having a set of beliefs isn't necesarily an asset. In fact, maintaning beliefs takes energy. A person must work to make sure that new info that might threaten their belief is reworked to fit w held belief(s). Beliefs can hinder your ability to see what's going on w people around a person, as what is seen is first filtered through those beliefs.
Just being a part of the world is a wonderful thing, contrary to wt wish.
S
I wouldn't know....
I'll suggest another target, other than normal. How about comfortable in your own skin?
This is what "normal" looks like. Everyone is either on one side or other of the line.
Some researchers these days are more interested in the "outliers", those who somehow defy the line. Researchers want to know; what makes them so different? They may have something we need knowing.
I hate to say it. But one of the 1st times I felt normal was in the congregation. Allow me to explain.
Growing up with learning disabilities, stuttering, and physical tics was really difficult. My parents were not JW's. Back in the 70's, a lot of people weren't familiar with how to work with kids like this. I was an outsider, who learned to keep his mouth shut because kids pick on the weird kids.
I sorta learned to deal with some of my disabilities, and just accepted I was different. When I grew up, I felt more comfortable with a mohawk or blue hair. When I did, these other weirdos accepted me as is.
I walked into a KH at age 22 with black hair down to my butt, and dressed only in black. I had leather boots on. Nobody said a word. I felt comfortable in my own skin as a result. Later I cut my hair and put on the suit. I was still a little weird, but the dubs accepted me as is.
That honeymoon lasted a few years.
Later I fet uncomfortable as a JW. I was going through another faze of being the weirdo, to 99.5% of the population.
I'm coming up on 9 years of being out. It took a few years but it feels normal now. Had I been patient enough, I would have eventually figured out some of my disabilies through therapy. It took learning the truth about the truth to give the world a try again. After all, 99.5% of the world can't be wrong, can they?
You sound like a very kewl outlier, wha happened.
I can sympastise with a lot of what of what you said, but you are no no longer the odd one out! You are now "normal". I still felt after I left like I was the odd one out, but I eventually realised I wasn't. You should feel liberated.
There is no point in looking back.
I was in it 23 years of my life (my childhood and youth), but I still enjoyed those years. And I can now enjoy the reamining years even more.
