Ghost of Esmeralda	Re: Forget your JW history and move on...
	Bravo, Brummie! You've eloquently stated exactly how I've been feeling lately.  Right down to the part about it not bothering you most days, and it getting more distant all the time. But it is there, it is part of who I am, and I cannot change that. Were you 'born in"? Because this seems to be a common thing with those like me who were born in, who have 4 or more generations of family in the Borg. When you go, literally everything and everyone you have ever knew will not acknowledge you. I loved what you said about them thinking your dead and just refusing to lie down...that hits it right on the head. My daughter does not have the friends I thought she'd have growing up. Children of my friends, who were born around the same time she was and who I always envisioned her growing up with. Gone. Everyone I ever knew, loved, or was close with the first 25 years of my life....gone. Now, if someone lost everything and everyone they ever knew through a great natural disaster, accident, or a war or an epidemic, something like that, would people tell them "Oh, it's been x amount of years, get over it!" I don't think so! I think the reason that exJW's tend to find eachother is the simple need to talk to people who have shared your experience. This is true of any support group. And that is really what we have here, a support group of sorts. I have gone on with my life. Being an exJW doesn't define me personally, just as having Multiple Sclerosis doesn't define me, personally.  I am more than those things. But they are an integral part of who I am, and you could just as soon tell me to make my eyes stop being blue as you could tell me to "just move on" from my past in the borg. Brilliant thread, thank you. ~essie www.ghostwriter.homestead.com
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