I was born into a JW family 1958 in New Zealand. Throughout my childhood I was told you will not go to school! you will not go to high school! you will not be old enough to drive before Armageddon and so on (This is the stuff of madness by the way).
As with most witnesses of the time my family never promoted learning and education, the society had everything we needed to know! As a result I quit school at 15 and went full time (regular pioneer) door knocking for about four years as well as working in a range of menial and labouring type positions to support myself. And you well know 1975 came and went and the spin doctoring continued. While my family for the most part have continued to believe (there are ten of us) I gradually withdrew from the meetings and other activities of the church.
Finally in the early 80s I made a decision that I could no longer condone the activities of the witnesses and wrote a letter asking to be removed from the register - so to speak - an invitation to be
disfellowshipped.
Well of course this was a traumatic experience as you well know (more so for my family). I was shunned by my family and this continues to be largely the case (although from time to time I have some contact whenever the clowns in New York change the rules of the game for a while). My break with the JWs occurred when I was in my early 20s almost 20 years ago now and I have not regretted for a moment the choice I made. Since then I have married and now have my own children (3) the eldest is hoping to get entry to university this year or next.
I myself several years ago completed a university degree (BA) and later a Ph.D and now teach Southeast Asian history and politics and have a two of my own books about to be published.
While I have no religion and encourage my children to be tolerant and
open to all systems of thought (as a student of life these days I have to say that just about any religion would be better than this one) - I do thank "god" that I got out while young enough to do something with my life. The worst possible outcome would be to remain in this cult for life as my parents did. Believing right up until their own deaths that they would live forever on earth. They were decent hard working people deceived into believing something from which they were never able to break free.
Well I just wanted to wish everyone all the best. I am glad to see so much material on the web which exposes the JWs as I am sure there are many in the church who stay simply because the fear of what leaving means. One of the reasons I believe that I did not suffer too much trauma when I left was because of my own research into organization. The greatest weapon one can use against them is their own literature - filled with back flips, contradictions and outright lies and most witnesses have tons of this material (rubbish) sitting around in their houses. But of course the publication process is so prolific they never have time to read the current material never mind things written 5, 10, 20 or 50 years ago. I am also glad to see that they seem to be in decline.