Ok here is drama-queen Farkel doing his anual catharsis again.
Many people who become JWs as adults, and later leave, have at least some "normal" remembrances of a "traditional" childhood. This is not true with kids unfortunate enough to be born into the "truth."
This depends on your parents. Not all JW parents are equally restrictive. Well, my situation was somewhat special because my father was a JW but my mother wasn't, so my brother and I enjoyed a certain degree of freedom. But overall I don't think JW kids lose too much, and it is certainly not the case that all "normal" things are healthy.
Although I have tried to supress it, I do vividly remember the days of my youth.
I try to learn from it, not supress it.
In first grade, children were required to stand and say the pledge of allegiance to the flag every day. I had to stand at attention like a soldier, and utter nothing. The children teased me, and asked me why. So did my teacher. I really couldn't explain why, except it was against my religion.
I lived through that experience too, PLUS we were living under a militar dictatorship by that time, and the JW religion was officially forbidden. To make things worse I was the best student in the class and was supposed to be the flag-bearer. But teachers were very considerate. I think that your being bullied and called names is telling something about American chauvinism and intolerance, more than any other thing.
Every Christmas, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and all other major holidays were scheduled as some "special" field service day, so of course, I had to go.
I didn't. I would just sleep until noon. This again depends on your parents.
As a young child, I remember many Christmas mornings standing in the snow, knocking on doors, and seeing kids my age around the Christmas tree tearing open presents and screaming with joy, while I stood there in my pathetic little suit, carrying my pathetic little briefcase containing my pathetic little magazines waiting to give my pathetic little speech. It was pathetic.
Well, you thought you were going to be living in a Paradise soon. I never felt pathetic. On the contrary, I felt very sorry for my classmates who would be soon destroyed in Armaggedon while I would be enjoying everlasting life on Earth. I've never felt a happiness like that again since I left the WT.
The How I Spent My Summer Vacation stories all school kids had to write were always centered around "vacation pioneering," because that is what I had to do. I could have used the same story 8 consecutive years in a row and the teachers would have been none the wiser.
I also used the same story for 7 years: "We didn't go anywhere on vacation because my parents are poor and couldn't afford it".
Then, at age 24, I realized what I had suffered all through my youth for was a fraudulent LIE.
Most of my youth was gone. And my youth was perverse. All for a LIE. So much of my youth was literally squandered being a slave for a moneymaking RACKET which fraudulently operates in the name of God.
My coming out of the WT was somewhat more traumatic. I'll probably tell the story some day. However, I went to college while I was still a Witness, so I didn't spend my youth entirely, because I didn't let them control my life entirely. You should have done the same. It was your fault that you didn't.
J.J.
