How Do You Feel About All The Time You Wasted Being. A Jehovah's Witness? (page 2)

cognitivedizzy

Feel like... no words to explain, lost out so much teenage time... and i hate them for that

Finkelstein

Pissed off, but I didn't have a choice since I was a born in.

At least I had the integrity and instinct to leave in my 20's

millie210

I was in all my life but any regrets I may have are mild.

Every experience is teaching us something and the point is when we learn better, to do better.

I have taken all there was that could benefit me and so I am leaving. New experiences will be coming my way after such a big step and I am looking forward to it all.

Considering how I always regretted not going as far in my university studies (I stopped at an Associates degree specifically because of college being discouraged in the cult), it feels like one big missed opportunity. I didn't leave until I was nearly 30 (born-in). Now, I'm back in school working on my B.Sc. degree. I regret that I haven't finished, or even started, my MS and/or PhD by now. Being a JW has been a lost decade educationally for me. Additionally, I resent the suppression of my intellectual curiosity and critical thinking that I was subjected to.

It wasn't all bad, that's true, but looking for a silver lining in a cult is like asking Andy Dufresne how he felt about the nearly 20 years he wasted as an innocent person in the Shawshank State Prison. Sure he made a good friend and had a few laughs now and then, but after literally crawling thru a mile of shit he couldn't have been happier to have gotten the hell out.

brandnew

Just look at my expression ! ! !

blondie

Why waste any more time or energy crabbing about the past...make plan for the rest of life and do it.

whathehadas

I don't know HOW you can say that being a JW wasn't a waste of time? It WASN'T the Truth, so all the energy, time and money were futile in it. The things learn in it that is redeemable now on the outside, could have been learned without being in a cult. I personally didn't have a horrific experience like some in it but the time in it could have been used for gaining experience in REAL relationships and education. Pisses me the F@#$ off thinking about that time lost!

Syme

I have mixed feelings. On the one hand I'm glad I'm free, and feel I have disposed myself of a huge burden.

On the other hand, I'm 32; *not* in my teens. I feel I've lost many years already; I have difficulty in adapting to the new situation, and I feel like I'm 40 or 50 sometimes.

InjusticeSystem

I was born in (never baptized thankfully), now in my 20's and mentally out and I would be ecstatic (and I am to some degree), if not for the fact that my wife is still lingering and my kids are being indoctrinated by her uber-zealous family at every opportunity. What I regret the most? I was prepared to live in a world that doesn't and won't actually exist, and I find myself desperately ill equipped to live successfully in this one. As has been said though, no use in wallowing in the past. I am now pursuing skills to improve my life and that of my family in order to hopefully one day be completely free. In the meantime, every meeting takes a grating toll on my mental health. Every time my son asks me a question that I can't answer honestly ("How did Jehovah create __________?, etc."), it's a knife to the chest.

John Aquila

It's not the past that bothers me,

its the future, or what's left of it.

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How Do You Feel About All The Time You Wasted Being. A Jehovah's Witness?