I'm new to this forum, and God, this really hit home with me. I was raised as a JW and I was always very smart, making straight A's. I was skipped from 1st to 2nd grade in private school. When I graduated at 16, I had full scholarship offers to colleges all over the country, but my dad wouldn't let me go away to college, and since I was underage, he was the one who had to sign the papers. My mom might have let me, but of course with all the stuff about the man being the head of the household, my mom just would sit back and put up with his crap about all kinds of stuff. But that story is a whole other post. Luckily for me, there was a great state university in our city, Jacksonville, but I wasn't even allowed to live on campus, right in the city. I had to drive back and forth. That was when I first really started having doubts about JW's. A lot of people in my congregation had smart things to say to me and my family about me going to college,and it really hurt. I had grown up around these people,they were all I knew, because my dad basically kept us ostracized from most of our blood relatives because they weren't "in the truth". My dad, to his defense,did stand up for me to the "friends" but then I guess the pressure was getting to him, because he started hinting around about maybe I should just stay for two years and get my AA degree and pioneer like another young sister had done who had gone to the same college. Well, smart as she was, the last I heard,she was pioneering up North somewhere and picking grapes for extra money. I said, not me,and I kept going and got my B.A.E. in Special Education. I'm now studying for legal assistant and plan to get my master's in Counseling Psychology and work with women in domestic violence and abused children involved in the legal system(that'll really knock my parents socks off-they were always talking about how it was wrong to study psychology and stuff because it would mess with your mind). Someone hit the nail on the head when they talked about how some "friends" have good lifestyles and they're not expected to give them up. My dad's best friend at the Kingdom Hall is a millionaire who made his money in real estate. I don't hear my dad saying he ought to give all his money away to Bethel or something.
freedinFlorida
JoinedPosts by freedinFlorida
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Education - How encouraging low self esteem creates better witnesses.
by BigG infunny title you might think but consider this point and apologies if i am covering old ground here...its not intentional.. i was raised by my mother who was and is a devout jw and as such until i was 20 (10 years ago) i was the same...trying my best to fit into the social environment i clearly was not made for but benefiting from good wholesome association with fellow brothers and sisters (note the sarcastic tone...make what you will of it).. althought at the time i didnt realise it but i was what others consider intelligent and quite academically able; i had a mind like a sponge and would spend hours in the jw library at the kh (which surprisingly enough contained non jw literature)...it was this that i read and would digest endlessly where i could.. one of those books (why it was there i dont know), was what i later undertood to be criminal law reports concerning cases that had gone before the courts.
my childish thirst for knowledge was intrigued...(i was then about 12).
the legal arguments i hadnt a clue what they meant but the facts surrounding these crimes were good reading.. i then knew i wanted to be a lawyer and that was what i said when an elder asked me what i wanted to do when i grew up; i mentioned trusting this man that i had read a book in the kh library and found it interesting...and that i wanted to be lawyer...i remember him smiling and saying that it was better to pioneer rather than seek a highly paid job...personally i didnt know what he meant properly but i felt a bit sad...and demotivated...i later in the week went back into the library and found the book had gone...!!.
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