College and EX-JW Discontent....Questions and Stats

by teenyuck 55 Replies latest jw friends

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  joelbear

  I was a straight A student in high school and attended Georgia's Governor's Honors Program in Mathematics. My parents would not allow me to apply for scholarships to College. When I came home one day with an application for Valdosta State, the local college, my mother got very upset and called one of my friends in the congregation who came over and talked me out of applying. My father would not even discuss the possibility of me going to college, no matter who paid for it.

  My life has turned out fairly well. I had a 20 year successful career in Banking and will soon graduate with a Bachelors degree in Marketing. How would my life have turned out if I had gone to college. I will never know. I practice accepting the path that I have taken. There are numerous other paths that I could have chosen at different flux points of my life. We all have these crossroads where we make decisions, some good some bad. Maybe I would have been rich or more successful had I chosen other paths, but if I had I would never have met Mitch, nor have the many good friends that I have today. If I had gone to college in the late 70s and gotten involved with the gay community at that time, I may very well have been long since dead from AIDS, who knows.

  You have to learn to live in the present as hard as that is for each of us to do.
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  cat1759

  Thanks Teenyuk!

  Cathy
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  Carmel

  Last weekend Paul Harvey had a story on about an 85 year old woman who decided to go to college and get the degree she missed out on due to circumstances. A week after recieving her diploma she died happy and without regret. Guess anyone harboring resentments about their childhood circumstances have yet to accept the responsibility for their own decisions either while as a JW or after. Sorry class, not much sympathy here!

  caveman
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  drahcir yarrum

  I started attending Community College at age 27 (the company I worked for agreed to pay one half the tuition and books, took out a student loan for the rest). I finished my undergraduate degree from a 4 year university at age 35 (took a few years off after getting divorce from my JW wife). I completed a graduate degree at age 41. While I can't say any of this was hugely important to my career, it did provide me with a sense of filling in a piece of my life that I thought was robbed from me as a JW.
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  teenyuck

  Carmel, I have heard so many inspiring stories like that....

  drahcir, congratulations. What you accomplished is wonderful and you never know where it will take you and your career.
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  Soledad

  A degree might let you apply for a different set of jobs, but there are other hurdles to overcome.

  this is very true. 5 years after earning my BA I find myself working at jobs that I am overqualified for. but I know that it is my own fault because I really hate preparing myself adequately for a professional interview, and I hate resume writing. I have friends who do not have the same education, but present themselves well and get great jobs with great pay.
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  blondie

  I could have had an all paid ride through college. But it meant abandoning my abused younger siblings. Instead I got a good job and made a home for them. I do not regret it.

  I went back to school about 10 years ago. I found I enjoyed the learning process more than the goal of graduating. I am still learning. My job pays quite well without a degree.

  In school I have met people who started out at 18 and partied hearty for 2 years and dropped out. They came back after becoming parents and seeing they had a serious responsibility. I have had fellow students as old as 62, retired people going back to school.

  Last weekend Paul Harvey had a story on about an 85 year old woman who decided to go to college and get the degree she missed out on due to circumstances. A week after recieving her diploma she died happy and without regret. Guess anyone harboring resentments about their childhood circumstances have yet to accept the responsibility for their own decisions either while as a JW or after. Sorry class, not much sympathy here!

  My fellow classmates have all overcome different barriers to going to school but found a way over all of them, financial, time constraints, discouragement from friends and family, age, having to learn to study again, but all of us had enjoyed being part of a growing process. School is not just for employment; it is for enrichment, fun, joy and sense of accomplishment.

  So everyone who posts on here under 85, still has a chance.

  Why Grandma Moses did not start painting until she was 78 and died at 101.

  Blondie (50 and counting)
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  sxybrwneyes

  I definitely would have went to college if it werent for being raised a JW. I always wanted to go to art school. I could have gotten scholarships as I always had very good grades but since I knew I would not go due to armageddon coming and I was expected to pioneer I didn't even take college prep classes. Instead I graduated early so I could pioneer and did that for years while just working part time jobs and living at home.

  Fortunately since I have been out of the org. I have been able to get good jobs and do well financially. I am now in a profession which I love and I make pretty good money. I just wish I didn't waste so many years pioneering, because I know I would be alot farther ahead than I am now.
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  OICU8it2

  I quit in my fourth year at the University of Cincinnati in 1972 because I had learned the "truth" recently and the world was going to end within 3 years. My parents, Methodists were very disappointed. I was 22 and very gullible. I already had graduated from a technical school 3 years earlier. Got into a skilled trade that paid well but was somewhat dangerous so the money didn't matter that much. Never was into money anyway. I believed it was the truth till about a year or so ago. Thank you for this website. Going to finish just for the hell of it especially since my emplyer will foot the bill.
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  GentlyFeral

  OK, I've been thinking about this intermittently for the past five years or so.

  To get a degree that would make me a Pile-O-Money would require four to six years of full-time study -- if I want it in time to build a career on it. (I'll be 49 in February.) If I could figure out how to support my family for 4 years, I might go for it.

  Or I could take ten or twelve years to get a degree, but by then I'd be about sixty, close to retirement age. Too late for it to hike my income, probably, but taking my time and paying as I go would actually put that diploma within reach.

  So I might as well get that degree in something that actually fascinates me, right?

  Right. So, by the time I'm sixty, maybe I'll have a master's degree.

  In poetics.

  GentlyFeral

  ...or maybe I'll be ready to publish my third or fourth book. (Better finish the first one )