by My Name is of No Consequence 38 Replies latest jw experiences
When I first left I tried a little bit of everything. I volunteered at an animal shelter - I found purpose in caring for the animals. I still do work with my local shelters. I tried sports leagues - softball, volleyball, bowling. It got me out and I met many nice people that way. I went to college and love my job.
Eventually I settled in, this life might be all there is - so I try to enjoy every bit that I can. You’ll find your way - in the meantime enjoy the ride.
Just don't go in hock buying a sports car and hitting the bars. lol
TITCH:
I agree with your post about the cat and the baby!😊
PUNKOFNICE:
I think you are right about what religion is: men that don’t want to work like other people do and who want an easy living.
I don’t know that there is really a ‘purpose’ in life as some people put it. It sounds like your life is filled with some interesting activities. Which is what all of us should seek out..Yes, life can be gloomy sometimes but we try to brighten our mood somehow.
All through the ages people had to worry about staying alive and putting food on their table for themselves and their families. That was their purpose. Those born under feudalism were in servitude to some landowner! They didn’t have the luxury of worrying about what their ‘purpose’ was. They didn’t have a choice: somebody else made it for them.
I think that some people who come out of the JWs or the military are used to somebody else telling them what to do! Somebody ELSE gave them ‘purpose’ if you want to call it that. There are many good suggestions in the posts here..If somebody is young enough they should enroll in college and that might give them some ideas about what to do in life.
punkofnice: I play in a fairly successful local rock band.
I am learning how to play the bass- it's my dream to be proficient before I die!
"Has anyone else felt this way? What have you done, or am doing, about it?"
I am catching up. There were two specific things I wanted to do when I was growing up --draw comics and write horror stories-- that I always avoided because they did not fit with my perception of a good JW. When I finally freed myself mentally, it still took some time to accept that I could now do both of those in good conscience. So now I spend some of my free time drawing and writing. It has come along very slowly, but I can recall the day I sat down and asked myself "what it is that you want to DO? What would give you a sense of fulfilment?" And the answer was easy: tell stories.
So I've worked on doing that ever since.
So my advice is: sit down and have a long talk with yourself about what you really would like to do. What do you want to accomplish? What gives you a sense of joy, of fulfilment? When you find the answer, start working towards those things as a goal. In other words, find something that makes you happy, and do that thing. And be happy.
Jwism has robbed us of our lives. Serving a man made organization/God for their benefit not ours. Countless time ,education and money lost because of this group. When you are out you have to build from scratch you life.
Serving a man made Borganization for their own benefit not ours is what Dubs can't realize because of mind control
Money, education lost because of this group.
Mind control. A terrible thing.
You have to rebuild your life from scratch. Because that's exactly what they leave you with,, nothing. Friends, family even monetary, loss of job and things.
I've heard it said that one measure of happiness relates to our education matching our intelligence.
Another quote is that if you do what you love, you will never work another day in your life.
Most of us raised as JW's did not have the chance to explore our interests. Our parents and the elders actively discouraged higher education and cautioned about spending too much time in selfish pursuits. We ended up taking menial jobs just to wait it out for Armageddon.
No wonder there are so many unhappy jws.
Very few JW's nurture their childrens talents and interests related to higher education.
This no doubt plays a role in causing dissatisfaction in life as we have gotten older and we regret lost opportunities.
On a bright note, more people than ever are attending higher education as mature age students, so if you feel you have an itch that you never scratched as a young jw, you can always sign up to a course, join a club, or whatever. You never know who you will meet and what it will lead to.
Sorry Joey, my big finger hit the wrong little button.
RB
