Finally going to college...

by Justice-One 18 Replies latest jw experiences

  • 144001
    144001

    Congratulations, Justice One! I'm drinking a beer to commemorate your pursuit of higher education!!!

  • Justice-One
    Justice-One

    Thank you for all the kind comments. My story has been told many times, so I did not want to bore you with the details. But suffice it to say, I was raised as a JW. For as far back as I can remember I was told not to worry about - INSERT PROBLEM HERE - because the end was coming so soon. I was never encouraged to do well in school, and just barely passing was good enough for my parents...who thought my time would be better spent serving Jehovah. Geez, it's a wonder I ever amounted to anything. Thank God at least I loved to read, and in 1997 I bought my first computer and went on the Internet. The net saved me. I can really see why the GB fear it so. I met some very interesting and intelligent friends online, including a Doctor and Engineer. We made jokes about my "outcome based education", and they gave me the encouragment I never had to improve myself. I guess this paid off to a certain extent already, as I aced the English placement tests, and was placed into English Comp 1A. I feel that I will do much better than I ever did in High School, as now I WANT to learn. I'm really looking forward to this. If I do well, I intend to transfer after two years to a State University, and get my BA. Who knows where this will lead. But at least I can dream of a Juris Doctorate.

  • sass_my_frass
    sass_my_frass

    Good on you! I started an economics degree last year, it's hard work but it's worth it, just to get my mind working.

    btw - Armageddon isn't coming, thought you'd be glad to know... but yes I used that line of reasoning myself for a while - 'if it's true, I wouldn't want to spend forever with you heartless creeps'

  • ex-perfectdaughter
    ex-perfectdaughter

    Good for you justice!!! I have almost graduated from college and I can see that it's the best thing I could have done. In my old KH the elders would rather you be poor on welfare and food stamps from the government, as long as you were pioneering you were fine. I think about how little the Society puts on education. A lot of friends here have homeschooled their kids and some of them are teenagers and they can harder read. Very sad.

  • Justice-One
    Justice-One

    Congratulations! What did you major in?

  • Quandry
    Quandry

    ex-perfect daughter makes a good point about home school. Lots of times that meant virtually no school. I remember kids being out in service counting that as part of their education. I wondered what real math or history or English skill they could develop by sitting in a car or going to a house where no one was at home during the day. Many of these children had poor social skills from the isolation from peers and had poor English skills. How can a good J.W. parent who has had no higher education teach chemistry or biology or algebra to their children? They would say "Oh, they just go through a book on their own." This means a child with no experience was his own teacher. I remember when my child was young many in my area home-schooled and tended to look down on those who did not as not being theocratic somehow. Well, they always had to make you feel guilty for something.

  • hungry4life
    hungry4life

    Good for you it is a choice you will not regret! I have not posted on this site in a very long time

    but I left 8 years ago as a newly single parent with two young daughters (ages 1 and 5).

    since then I have graduated received both my associate and bachelor's degrees and after

    taking two years off I am now half way through my graduate degree. I have a much better job

    making 3X the money that I did before my degree (with just a bachelor's) and more importantlyI am doing what I love.

    The whole education (or lack of) thing is just a scam to keep people uniformed and without power.

    If the WTO was really thinking about the spreading the truth it would make much more sense economically to earn more and work less in a respected career where you could reach out to the middle class as a colleague instead of a window washer.

    I think of all the people that were left behind in my old congregation and how they have accomplished nothing. They must think about but still they stay- it is never too late. This is especially sad to me when I think of the young people including my nieces and nephews that had so much potential and now work menial or labor type jobs, not that this is a disgrace if it is what you really want to do but so many of these kids had no options or support and simply went with the “theocratic way”

    Your choice takes strength but you will gain more than just earning power and a diploma you will be able to think more critically and view life through new lenses.

  • Forscher
    Forscher

    Check your PM Justice-one.
    Forscher

  • Justice-One
    Justice-One

    Thank you all for the comments. I start on the 28th of this month. I have had my books for the past two months, and have tried to give myself a headstart.

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