Funny how the WTBS brags about not baptising babies like other churches do, because in the Bible, only men and women were baptised.... yet they will allow children as young as 7 to get baptised! How did we ever overlook that? I'm sure most of us thought "wow, that child is so mature!" - not really, they just know all the answers to the questions in the green book and that life is all they know.
I was baptised at 16 (started studying when I was 14) and at the time, I felt like I was dedicating myself to GOD, not the WTBS. Admittedly tho, I didn't feel all excited and everything - being baptised at an International Convention was weird, mass baptism. It caused a lot of problems with my non-JW family, and I do regret it very much. I should have listened to them (and my gut - which I attributed to pressure from the world). I was not ready for it, and did not really think of the consequences should I change my mind down the road.
Like many others here, I am very socially inept, from those formative teenage years being so messed up. Sure, I had my fun, went to worldly parties (before, not so much after), had good friends (who I pretty much left when I got baptised ) , but then I became a real goody-goody and forsook the rest of my teenage years. Now here I am at 24, and I went to a bar last weekend FOR THE FIRST TIME. That is sad! I am struggling to learn social skills now, to make friends, to branch out and learn who I am all over again.... for someone who is naturally shy and anxious, that is not a very easy thing to do.
At the same time though, if I had not studied and gotten baptised, I would not be married to Kwin or have our wonderful kids, so it turned out ok in the end. I just chalk it up to experience and am trying to move on and move up. Now I can get a better education and a decent (non-minimum-wage) job that actually stimulates my brain. (I thought my brain had gone numb from having kids and no time to myself - turns out it was the WTBS' fault, lol).
Heart2Heart
