by minimus 31 Replies latest jw friends
I love my life but I hate the long Canadian Winters. If I had a choice, I would spend longer times down south. I would still be a witness either way. I think that, that Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder (SAD) affects me.
The JW environment is kind of like the work/family atmosphere. You can't choose your workmates/brothers or sisters. So you pick who your friends are going to be.
The JW life may not be for some that can't live up to the rules though.
Being a JW limits one's opportunities to explore great art, great music, great literature, science and math. One is required to suppress his or her gifts and talents in order to conform and recruit new JW's.
Since I have left, I have read many books, including plenty of self-help books, have acquired a college degree, learned about various fields (e.g., law, medicine, engineering) through gainful employment. The world and all its horrors and delights are available to me. My daughter, born into a JW family, never (even as a small child) liked the dub "lifestyle."
When I first became a JW at age 15 (without anyone else in my family), it was a step up for me. I came from an uneducated, unmotivated family. My egg donor and sperm donor were abusive, physically and psychologically. I was very fond of the love bombing I got at the KH. I got to go to assemblies, which was so exciting to me because I had never stayed in a hotel at all or eaten out for days on end. I had always wanted to see other places, and being a JW gave me some opportunity on that front. To me, the dubs seemed very well educated and sophisticated, articulate and experienced. As time went on, of course, being a JW was stifling and limiting.
Je ne regrette rien. - Edith Piaf
