Did being a JW stifle your ambition?

by ballistic 40 Replies latest jw friends

  • Dia
    Dia

    Biblebasher - could you elaborate? I don't understand your comment but would like to.

    Thanks

  • Ed
    Ed

    The JW's never really discouraged me from getting an education, strangely enough. The Australian public school system did a damn fine job of killing my interest in just about everything though...

  • Guest 77
    Guest 77

    Titiana, ah, someone I can relate to. Yeah, my mom was more influential than the org. When I read about your pictures being torn up and it felt like your heart being torn up, well, I went through a similiar experience. So, I know exactly where your coming from. My mom was a domineering person, I guess she had to because she had 12 kids and my dad wasn't a father. Anyways, I fought against my mom and I won out. It takes guts to run away from home at an early age and support yourself. I eventually resolved my issues with my mom, though the damage had been done. A child's world can come to an end (stifled) by insane upbringing.

    Yes, pursue your goals even if others object or try to stifle your desires. You have my hearty support. Be your own person. I'm also a professional golf techer , when I teach, I teach others to 'teach' themselves. Every person is different and so isn't their golf swing, and as golf teacher, I constantly remind my students to teach themselves. This method gives them confidence and self-esteem. People need to learn to have faith in themselves and abilities. I do not want my students to be dependent on me. Remember the Kingdom song, 'Move Ahead?' well, your on the right track of moving ahead with your life and goals.

    Guest 77

  • reubenfine
    reubenfine

    An excellent thread. I think I was stifled beyond belief. School was easy for me and I could have gone so many paths. I would have liked to have tried professional baseball but will now never know. I have done the most menial of jobs, including driving a truck to pump portable toilets. I have an IQ of 137 and am driving a tow truck. I have tried different kinds of self-employment and have found out that I'm the world's worst business man. Something inside of me kills ambition. My 6th grade teacher told my mom that she was holding me back, that I was a leader around the other kids and could really go somewhere. She told him that I go door knocking. Wow, that really got me somewhere! I and the world both could have been better off.

    All I can do now is make the most of it. In spite of this message I have quit dwelling on the past and have tried to move on. But my ambition was definitely hampered by this evil cult.

  • cruzanheart
    cruzanheart

    YES!!!!!

    I will always feel the effects of it. I know physically it's not too late to go to college, but I wish I had that behind me. Elsewhere, you would have been a brilliant physicist. Tatiana, I deeply sympathize - I started a clothing and jewelry design business but because of lack of training (here's where the college part would have helped) I lacked the ability to make the business really work. Our daughter is artistic and we are encouraging her to go to college and take business courses so she will be able to put her talents to their very best use. Our son wants to be a paleontologist, so he knows college is his next step. I love it that they have no boundaries on what they can learn and do.

    Nina

  • Englishman
    Englishman

    I always wanted to be...........

    A LUMBERJACK!

    Englishman.

  • cornish
    cornish

    Very much so

    I could not contemplete any long term goals in this system,because the end was so close it would always be fruitless, so yes, it completely curtailed my ambitions and choices in so many respects.

  • RedhorseWoman
    RedhorseWoman

    Oh, yes. I was brought up as a JW, and put everything on hold to serve Jehovah. I finally left when I was 37, and up to that point I had almost nothing put away for the future. What future? We would never grow old in this System!

    I was fortunate that I managed to get on-the-job training in mainframe programming, and also fortunate that I really love it. I've been able to get a decent job with decent pay, but it's difficult to play catch-up with retirement savings.

  • longtimeout
    longtimeout

    Here's a beauty from the Watchtower, Sept. 15, 1965 issue in the article entitled "Weighing Wedlock in These Last Days" on page 565, chapter 20: "What a time this is for joyful service to Jehovah! God's kingdom rules! The end of this system of things will occur in our very own generation! "The time left is reduced".

    Marriage, and everything else, was strongly discouraged given the importance of pioneering, and the urgency of the times.

    There you have it. The cornerstone doctrinal teaching that ruined so many of our lives. Of course, now there's new "light"! When are they ever going to wake up???

  • SheilaM
    SheilaM

    Tatiana:

    That was horrible what your Mother did, I hope you are still working on you Art!!!

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