IF YOU COULD CHANGE 1 THING IN YOUR LIFE,what ?? (page 2)

Lew - Thank you for commenting, and I am so sad for what you had to go through. I was 3yrs old when I watched my brother, Craig, dragged and run over by a streetcleaner. (driver was hungover). I often wonder what life would be like had he lived. My life was also touched by suicide - my closest friend, Starr, and I blame the elders and the borg as I know she tried her best. She left two children behind, but I feel no anger towards her. I know what it's like to be 'there'. I also came into contact with it during my work on the ambulance. It is so sad. But as you said, some people just cannot handle any more. I know if I lost my daughters, people would have to watch me closely.

UglyDuckling - hon, there is no such thing as normal; There is only reality! Hugs!

Mimilly

Beck_Melbourne

I would have been a better daughter to my dad.

Beck

((((Mimilly)))) So sorry about your brother.

DakotaRed

Mimilly, my anger was not at my uncle, but at my abusive parents. My aunt and uncle were about the nicest people I ever grew up around. I often wished and prayed to be adopted by them.

Sadly, theirs were the just the start of my exposure to death. A few years ago, while still a JW and inactive, a good friend, also a brother and a fellow Vietnam veteran, committed suicide too. I tired talking to him, as I saw he was depressed and unable to keep a job. He kept reassuring me he was alright. A couple weeks later, he was dead. The family never released how or what his note said.

Last year, I found out that a cousin of mine also committed suicide by hanging himself. He wasn't a JW, but his Dad went from a drunken lush to a religious fanatic, the holy roller pentecostal type, literally over night. He was self declared reverend, spreading the gospel, or how he viewed it. I avoided him, he was a real nutcase. I do believe he drove his own son to suicide.

Lew W

onacruse

Mango, I'm with you on this one.

"Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it come to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh."
Henry David Thoreau

Reborn2002

That I had not been forced to live the first 20 years of my life as a Jehovah's Witness.

Simple as that.

Dismembered

"I'd kill the guy that went and named me Sue!..............

LyinEyes

I would change just one thing,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, losing my mom at 18, just when I needed her the most.

I think if I had to just choose one, that would be it, because of losing her, so much of my life was altered. I wonder what I would have been like if we could have had closure on the past problems at home. I wonder what she would be like to my kids.I wonder if she really loved me,,,and I would like her to be able to show it. I would have loved to see her stand up to my dad, to all the elders and tell them to all kiss her,,,, well you know. If she would have stood up for herself,,, she could have stood up for me when I really needed it.There are just some things you always want to talk to your mom about. So many things in my life are have been downs are so trivial next to losing her.

I just have to throw this in,,,, I wish I would have never been raised a JW. I wish I never would have raised my children in it either.. well, I hope to make it up to them for that .

minimus

Wonderful, heartfelt responses! Although, so many here are clearly disillusioned with having been Witnesses, most do not cite this as the number 1 thing in life that would have been changed. This board represents such a wide range of experience! I really don't know what I would change, because as one other poster indicated, we are who we are because of our experiences, and hopefully that's not such a bad thing.

Francois

I would have never, ever let myself get sucked into getting baptised a JW. It was a youthful indescretion, but from it sprang 95% of ALL the hurt I've experienced in this life.

I can't wait for the day when I get off this planet and get on with my cosmic career. I don't wanna be here any more.

- francois

IF YOU COULD CHANGE 1 THING IN YOUR LIFE,what ??

StinkyPantz