Hey everyone. I am honestly touched. Thanks for that. (Besty, I appreciate your great contributions and work in helping people online learn about JWs)
I am surprised so many people thought I was well adjusted. In some respects, I am. In other areas, I've had to come face to face with the deep wounds that are my own. We all have theM. For whatever reason, I didn't like posting about them. I wish I did. I know I represented myself as strong, and probably there were some days I felt responsible to be strong For you, to say "The Borg doesn't have to beat you." Like somehow, admitting I was in pain was weak, when in fact, the opposite is true. It takes a stronger person to be honest than to ignore the pain.
Here's the good news. I can now say I used to be a JW, went to Africa, had some bodacious experiences and started life over. That's progress For me. I couldn't even talk about what happened with me for years. It's taken a while in that front.
For me, and probably most of us, to be able to move on means that we acknowledge there will always be a scar, and wrinkles along the eyes of our soul. But at least, we've lived, and continue to strive.