What Road Would You Choose---IF?

by John Aquila 31 Replies latest jw experiences

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  John Aquila

  Say you could go back in time to when you were 15 years old. No Watchtower in your life. But the experience you have now you could keep. What career choice would you make?

  Any choice you wanted but no guarantees that you would be successful in your career. That’s just life whether you get trapped by the Watchtower or NOT.

  It will depend on your planning, the talent you develop, your persistence, timing, the breaks you make for yourself.

  Would you play it safe and choose a more stable career like Doctor, engineer, Lawyer, etc, or would you take a chance and try to make it big as a musician like Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift.

  Or would you be persistent and try to be a producer like Steven Spielberg or George Lucas. Or would you give it a shot to be a movie star like Michelle Rodriguez and hang out with all the other movie stars?

  Would you give it a try at being an Entrepreneur like Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos. Would you go to school with the goal of being a successful hedge fund manager like James Harris Simons.

  At what age would you marry? Or would you prefer to stay single?

  Watchtower or not, success might come or it might slip through your fingers. Divorce, accident, illness, or just plain bad luck can throw you off the tacks for good.

  But sometimes pursuing your dreams whether you are successful or not, give you a sense of satisfaction that at least you had “The Chance To Give It A Shot, and You gave it Your Best Shot”
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  rebelfighter

  Would not have gone for the money but for a career as an artist which I am now looking into. Never to late to go back to school, at least that is what my daughter says. I definitely would have had my kids earlier in life, I was 34 and 40 when they were born. We all have a great sense of humor and great genes, we all look younger then our age but I still get taken for my daughter's grandmother LOL and my kids call me old but that's ok. I still would be a child's advocate. And I would still believe in God but not Religion.
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  brandnew

  Would have definetly went into the armed forces, its too late now, and the ones who held me back from that dream.....now shun me.: (
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  John Aquila

  rebelfighter

  Would not have gone for the money but for a career as an artist which I am now looking into

  Anything can happen. But if you don't try, you will never know. Good Luck!
  
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  jerryminor

  John I took every shot I could after getting disfellowshipped. What's the worst that happen to you for trying? I was lucky to make it through that mess but boy the rewards were so sweet after taking the risk. Which really isn't one when you think about life as a whole. Do what makes you happy! You'll be happy.
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  stan livedeath

  at 15 i was still at a UK grammar school--in the 6th form--interested in going into architecture----but got listening to DO ron drage at an assembly bigging it up about teenagers going pioneering--so i bought into that instead. so left school--took up window cleaning--as you do--and started selling fucking magazines.

  like most young men i was led astray by my hormones and married at 20 in order to copulate.

  i can think of 2 things there i would have done differently with hindsight.
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  Giordano

  We left in the mid 1960's. Faded away. I am starting at age 23 because by then I was married. Looking back we should have relocated to South Florida and started my art career sooner. However I have conveniently forgotten that we had a baby on the way and no money or trade. Between my wife and I we had one HS diploma and my career up to then was pioneering where the need was great.

  I wanted to become a fine art photographer but only managed to be able to take/afford one course in portrait photography then had to go to work. I started as 'kidnapper' which is what they called baby photographers back then.

  It was another five years before we were able to relocate to Fort Florida where I began to sell Real Estate while I also began to exhibit my personal photography.

  After exhibiting at the Coconut Grove Art Festival (Miami) and experiencing what it was like being in control of one's own display and having 250,000 people visiting the 3 day event I had found my venue and way to make a living as an artist. It was very tough for a while but eventually we learned how to survive and even prosper

  So we got to where we wanted to be and how we wanted to live after all. My wife is also an artist as is our son.

  I am ever so grateful that we got out early enough to make a life out of our lives.
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  FayeDunaway

  Life is funny.

  i don't want to give away too much, but i would have liked to be an actress (very cliche' of course) not famous or anything, but it would have been great to get an earlier start, I know I could have played roles in local productions. I was just in a small role recently. I was good.

  But honestly, what would have happened if I wasn't a witness, is the worldly boy I fell in love with in senior year of high school...we would have gotten married. The only reason we didn't is because he wasn't a witness and I couldn't hurt my parents. We found eachother much later on FB. He, strangely, had gotten into another cult, (weirder than jw's) and escaped from it. He got married and had the same number of children as I have. We limited our talking to eachother. We are both happily married. Now, 5 years later, he is slowly dying of a terrible neck cancer that took his voice, tongue and ability to eat by his mouth.

  Realistically, if I hadn't been a witness, I would have been his wife. Watching him suffer every day. He is very spiritual and sees beauty in the process of himself dying.

  it gives me really mixed feelings. Selfishly glad it's not me that has to raise the kids alone. but being so far away...feeling really helpless.

  Im not grateful I was a witness. I'm grateful for my husband who followed me out. And he's healthy.
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  mimimimi

  I would get my college degrees; bachelor's, master's and doctorate, probably in something to do with literary arts or history and then hopefully become a college professor and definitely an author. I would be involved in movements for social change.

  In high school my plan for my life included never marrying, being an author, having a little cottage with lots of flower gardens and lots of pets. If I could go back and know what I do now and not have Watchtower influence, I would try very hard to have that life and be a college professor as in above paragraph. But I know now I would never be able to drink and should stay away from recreational drugs - being a recovering alcoholic, I know those things are a life destroyer for me.

  But out of this life I have today, I have three wonderful sons and four grandchildren, one more on the way in the next week, and a very happy life, so no regrets.
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  John Aquila

  FayeDunaway

  Life is funny.

  Yea life is freaking funny, I'm still trying to figure it out and it looks like I'm not going to be able to.