WELCOME!!!

Like u, I didn't HAVE friends growing up. My parents were my 'parents/only friends' - oh - and my cats!!! My folks were the anal JWs that thought being 'no part of the world' meant secluding us from everything they could - including association with other kids our age. We weren't allowed to ride the bus to school (bad association on the bus), we couldn't go to JW gatherings if there were too many kids there or not enough adults - in my parents eyes (society forbids large gatherings so these kids parents must NOT be spiritually strong), we couldn't have friends over (the JW kids in our cong my parents labeled 'worldly'), talking on the phone to another JW - well - u were expected to sit in an OPEN area so that the parents could hear your conversation and make sure it was 'morally clean', couldn't sit with kids at the assemblies (society says to sit with ur family only) - so i FEEL u on being socially awkward there for a long time! There were these girls in my cong that were very popular - and when my parents would have their families over for dinner, these girls would torment me to no end. Make fun of me because I was a nerd, and flat out TELL me that they didn't like me because I was such a snob! A snob?????? I didn't talk to anyone - I wasn't allowed to. But that is how we were perceived...like lil snots, all because mom and dad were SO afraid we would be influenced by anything worldly...so they kept an overtight grip. It's not easy, it's lonely, it's painful, and it's confusing. We all supposed to be bros/sis serving Jehovah - WHY were my parents so standoffish? Why didn't they let us go out and make friends? Life for me consisted of school, mom picking me up (I had 5 mins to get OUT of school and be IN the car), staying in the house doing homework (not allowed to play with neighborhood kids), going to mtgs, then bed. FUn - huh??? -LOL!!! Thing is - I am extremely extroverted...so there was no WAY my parents were goign to squelch THAT out of me, and I didn't allow them to. The older I got, the more I attempted to 'express' myself. It caused some headbutting between me and the folks, but it showed them that I was not goign to be controlled by any 'religious' opinions of how I should be ... and once I got OUT....well, I feel like myself now.

Look at it this way - you have the chance to become whomever u want!!! The way u were raised, everything was stiffled and chosen for you - now - u can make ur own choices and do what u want to do. Take advantage of this time that u r free to think, free to speak, and free to do - U.