(((Cassiline,)))
I was also born and raised in the JW cult. But my perspective differs greatly from most of the other similarly situated individuals who have posted on this thread to this point. I NEVER bought what the JWs sold; I was an unwilling participant from day one, subjected to physical and emotional abuse as a result of my defiance. Sure, I feigned cooperation and belief in order to minimize the abuse, but my heart was never part of that cult. At the age of 14, I rejected it all and stopped attending meetings/field service, and paid the price for it. It just got to the point where listening to the endless streams of verbal effluent that spewed from the mouths of idiots at the podium was far worse than anything my parents could dish out.
Therefore, I have neither a "pre-dub" nor a "post-dub" identity. I'm just a guy who survived a horrible childhood disease known as Jehovah's Witnesses.
In some respects, I owe much of my success in life to the Jehovahs Witnesses. I used the extreme anger and negative energy they created in me to motivate me to excel academically, professionally, and physically. However, the WTS shouldn't be expecting a "thank you" card from me. Although most of that negative energy has since been consumed and used in a mostly positive manner, I still have some residual effects that surface on occasion and cause unhappiness.
Personally, asking myself "what might have been" serves only to exacerbate that residual negative energy, so I avoid asking that question and instead focus my energy on my future.