Hey Spencer, I hope I got your name right. My name is Dede and I have a 15 yr old son. His name is Jake. We left the Jehovah's Witnesses about a year ago and have just last week told them we no longer want to be associated with them in name, because of what the organziation is doing to people. The life stories you have read and advice from others before me all are true. We all went thru the same pain being witnesses. I was raised a witness and have been all my life,,, and most of that was utterly miserable. My son, Jake , never went to school, I homeschooled him, and he never got to do anything normal kids do. Right before we left being JW he got seriously withdrawn and depressed, I knew this was coming for I went thru it too, some friends he was allowed to play with in our neighborhood would share their lives with him and he realized how hollow his was in so many ways. Well , he is in school today, it is the third day for him, Kelly and Chance. He is #21 on his football team, and has been practicing hard for 2 weeks now. He got his books, and class list yesterday. He is looking forward to making good grades , and wants to have victory for the bulldogs(his team mascot) this friday, it will be his first game. This has made such a difference in his life, he feels normal, he feels like there is a place for him now, he is happier than I have ever seen him.
He has "scoped " out a few girl and is wondering what talking to them face to face is going to be like, or asking them to homecoming . He was so sheltered by us, this is all new to him.
When we sat Jake down a year ago and told him what was going on, why we were leaving the JW"s he said "Thank God,,,,,,,, Ihave been hating going to those meetings for over a year now, and I know they are full of crap". My husband and I looked at each other and wondered why this child saw the lies before we did. He is very intellegent , like you are and mature in mind for his age. He started telling us stuff , that blew our minds about what he really beleived in. So our exit with all of our kids was a blessing for them, I never knew , and Jake and I are very close, that he hated it so much. He sure put up a good show, and it was tearing him apart.
This is just part of our story, but you are young and have so much ahead of you, you are wise to want to figure things out on your own. We told Jake if he wanted to go back to meeting or any other church that was his choice. I think at you guys age, you can make alot of choices responsibly on your own, and i know your mom will always be there to guide you in anyway. But like others said,do becareful of JW's they have and are continuing to destory lives. When you walk into a kingdom hall all you see is the pretty stuff, dig deeper on JW, study what they have done in the past, what they are doing now. Never take anyones word for anything, find it out yourself. I wish you the best.
Hugs, Dede, Jake's mom