Welcome I Want, and thank you for an excellent read; it was enjoyable.
You hit on a few points that really brought back some memories. You said,
"...when the monthly requirement was lowered to 70 hours, I just couldn't do it anymore. I'd burned out and was feeling guilty."
Oh how I remember those burn out days. Like you I became a MS very quickly. I spent gobs of time in the field ministry, often working alone. After a few years, I began to feel ill when in service. Finally, one day it hit me hard; I was nauseated. I leaned over at the curb and vomited. I wasn't reallly sick at all; the 'sick' feeling had been building for some time when I went in service. That was the end of my days of putting massive amounts of time into the door-to-door work. At first I worried that there was something wrong with me, but now it's clear that I had burned out from doing something that was unproductive and meaningless. My body had finally rebelled. I wish my mind had responded at the same time because I would have left the organization much sooner than I did.
You also said,
- "I've realized "worldly" people aren't evil.
- My disposition has never been better.
- I actually care about others now."
Ditto to all of the above. Getting free of the depressing restaints and the constant feeding of controlled information has been liberating and has allowed my real personality to surface.
Thanks again for the great post. It's a solid reminder of things I had forgotten, and provides sound reasons to never return to the Watchtower.
