Since You've Been "Out"----Do You Feel Better About Yourself???

minimus

I do. It's great knowing that leaving the organization has not produced our "weeping and gnashing of the teeth" as we might once have believed. We've become FREE!!!!!!!!!!

Great question Min! YES! I ABSOLUTELY DO! It took a while mind you that. I had to work on my social skills. The only thing I knew how to talk to people about was assemblies, and service, and how encouraging such and such was. I felt really bad about myself as a Witness. I always felt like I didnt fit in; I was pretending to be something I'm not. Since leaving I've been able to spread my wings so to speak. Of course I hit a couple walls, but I got back up. I finally know WHO I am. That's a hard thing to figure out when you're growing up JW.

iiz2cool

I'm still experiencing some fallout because of my exit from the borg because of the breakup of my marriage, but there's no "weeping and gnashing of the teeth" going on here. In fact, my boss took me aside yesterday and told me that my job performance has improved over the last few months since my separation, and gave me a raise! Not much, but enough to buy a few beers! And they're sending me on nine courses between now and December!

Yeah, I guess I'm feeling OK!

Walter

exjdub

has not produced our "weeping and gnashing of the teeth" as we might once have believed

I agree minimus. The big scare that was ~~inculcated~~ brainwashed into us was that we would be lost without the org if we left. That is the biggest fear I hear in posters that contemplate leaving the org. The fear is stifling for people... how can that possibly be healthy? Fear is never a good basis for a belief system.

I have accomplished far more in the 6 years that I have been out than I did in the 36 years that I was in the org. I feel much better about myself and I am thankful for every day of freedom.

Exjdub

ApagaLaLuz

and gave me a raise! Not much, but enough to buy a few beers

Congratulations!!!!!! Drinks on you!!!! I'll take something simple, perhaps an apple martini

p.s. I was surprised after I left that I DIDNT end up homeless, pregnant, addicted to drugs, and married early to some guy that beat me.

Of course there's always next year

Elsewhere

I am FAR more happy since leaving the bOrg.

Left_Field

Happy. Happy with myself. That was the ultimate thing I got no matter what problems came and went.

Nick

blondie

We never realized how much stress the meeting/pre-study/service schedule was. We love being able to relax at home without rushing through dinner, changing our clothes and dashing off to the KH to be bored to tears. We don't miss the guilt trips. For once I can really read the Bible and not WTS publications.

Blondie

Corvin

Hey Minimus! Once again, you are my hero with your threads so brilliant in their simplicity and target nailing. I hate you. Jk.

It's great knowing that leaving the organization has not produced our "weeping and gnashing of the teeth" as we might once have believed.

I haven't once nashed my teeth for being thrown out into the dark. My weeping is purely a tears of joy kind of thing! YAYYYYYYY!

Hey WTBTS! You can bite me.

Corvin

Country Girl

Good for all of you! Awesome! Life has never been easy for me since I became part of the world, but it was EASIER. If I had been burdened with trying to live up to impossible standards on *top* of all the grief, it would have been just a nightmare. I, for one, am just grateful that I am alive and here to tell about it.

It's been twenty years now, but since I have been out. I have found myself, and have come to like myself, most of the time. I'm not going to say any of it was easy. When you are raised up in it, it creates a problem because you don't do "normal" things like: graduating, going to prom, dating, etc., so that creates a big social deficiency when you finally get out. The world is not fair, never fair, and does not lend a hand to those who can't live in it. If you can't live in it, you can't partake of it. Fortunately, I learn quick.

The sexual abuse I experienced as a young child will remain part of me forever. That haunts me every day, and I think about it all the time. But it is part of me, and for that I am grateful because it made me more aware for my own child, and made me stronger, and made me what I am today: a person that believes in speaking up, despite obstacles, in honesty and truth. Because of what I was, and what happened to me, I am better able to be a better person. I am coming to find that it's getting easier to just say no. I like that about myself.

It means that I can live my life in peace because I am in comfort with my outward self, as well as my inward self. Like I said before: I've never been one to stand too much discomfort. Probably why I only had ONE child. Heheheh. I am not a person to live by logic, because sometimes logic is entirely too cold and uncomfortable. But I am also not a person that can deny logic. I like to be somewhere in between, where it feels good. I like that.

I also like that I am not required, at this point in time and in this country, to make my opinions match with anyone else's. I am free to say "Go put your head in the toilet" if I want to. I am still investigating and exploring this freedom. I like the freedom to *do* that, if I want to. I don't know all the answers, of course I don't. No one does. But I like the fact that I can choose to put it on the back burner for now until I figure out what is my best course.

Yes. I like it. And I like me. For the first time.

CG

Since You've Been "Out"----Do You Feel Better About Yourself???

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