I got inspired to start this post from something I read at another messageboard, thought I would give it a try here and see what happens. Basically what this post is about is a place for everybody to contribute a personal bio or short story about themselves. If you ever wanted to know more about a particular poster this can be the place to find it. Well here's my boring little story.
I was born and raised in Chicago, the first of 2 boys (my younger brother is 9 years under me). My parents were very religious people (still are in fact) and that really shaped who I am today. I grew up on the south side of Chicago which is for the most part a predominantly all black area. In the beginning we did fairly well as a family, my dad did ok as a small businessman and after my mom gave birth to me she left her job to be at home for the family. My childhood was great, I learned to read at a very early age and by the time I was 5 or 6 I was a confirmed bookworm. At the age of 9 my mother gave birth to my baby brother for which I was eternally grateful for at the time, I finally had someone else in the house to play with. Unfortunately shortly after the arrival of my brother things in our family took a turn for the worse. For some reason which I will never be able to understand my father got involved with some very shady people. One thing led to another and he got addicted to drugs, lost his business and started sleeping with other women. Well when my mom found out she refused to put up with my father's behaviour, he eventually moved out and my brother and I did not hear from him for more than 11 years. (I later found out due to his lifestyle he had gotten on the bad side of some drug dealers who were determined to kill him and he fled to California)
As I mentioned before my family was very religious, both of my parents at a young age were associated with Jehovah's Witnesses. Since my parents were devout JWs my brother and I were very ingrained into the religion. Growing up my brother and I were taught not to associate or play with worldly children (anyone who is not a Jehovah's Witness) so outside of school I rarely interacted with kids after class. Fortunately there were quite a few other JW kids who lived close by so I was'nt really starved for friends. Grammar and high school were pretty uneventful years for me I basically just kind of casually made my way through the classes, teachers would always tell my mom I had potential but I did'nt apply myself enough. I guess I just was'nt interested enough back then to put up to much of an effort. After high school I enrolled at a technical school for computers and industrial electronics, for the first time learning was fun. I guess seeing real world applications of the things I was learning ignited a fire under me and I absorbed everything like a sponge.
A few months after I finished tech school I landed my first PC tech job through the help of one of my older relatives. The experience was good for me not only in terms of job training but also in life. The majority of my lifespan had been spent in basically an all black community and now for the first time I was working and interacting with people of all races and backgrounds. I made some really good aquaintances during that time, but I also had my first experience with racism. One evening after work I was walking towards the train station a truck with about 4 or 5 white guys rode along side me yelling racial slurs and throwing beer bottles. I was scared as hell, I was working in a suburb far from home and I did'nt have any friends in the area. Thankfully after some more yelling they moved on. I experienced more racism after that event but not quite as severe as that first experience.
I eventually moved onto other jobs through-out the Chicago area and gradually began building up a fairly decent work history. At 23 I met my wife through a friend of the family, she was also a devout JW like myself. We dated for almost 2 years and eventually got married. Things were fairly uneventful for awhile until I started doing research on my religion one day. I'm not sure what initially motivated me to look up the history on JWs but I learned more about the religion in 3 months than I had in 20+ years. I discovered that there were a lot of skeletons in the closet of this particular relgion and this knowledge eventually led me to break apart from it, which was'nt easy because at the time I was a full time minister giving 5-6 talks (sermons) a month and a variety of other related activities. Last year I finally broke all of my ties with the religion and now I'm slowly trying to rebuild my life. Its been difficult my wife and my family who still are JWs are constantly trying to get me to go back to the religion, however I can never go back to something I know is'nt true. I'm currently trying to learn how to trust people and make new friends. All of my life I've been told to avoid building relationships with anyone who is'nt part of the religion so its challenging trying to overcome that type of thinking at times. But things are'nt bad for me however, I've been doing well with my job and I've also been really successful with some investments I've been working on. I'm hoping to take a year off very soon and do a little traveling and some other things I've always wanted to do. Outside of that I spend a lot of time playing video games and reading posts on this board.
Well thats my story, if anyone fell asleep and banged their head on their monitor I absolve myself of all damages.
I was born and raised in Chicago, the first of 2 boys (my younger brother is 9 years under me). My parents were very religious people (still are in fact) and that really shaped who I am today. I grew up on the south side of Chicago which is for the most part a predominantly all black area. In the beginning we did fairly well as a family, my dad did ok as a small businessman and after my mom gave birth to me she left her job to be at home for the family. My childhood was great, I learned to read at a very early age and by the time I was 5 or 6 I was a confirmed bookworm. At the age of 9 my mother gave birth to my baby brother for which I was eternally grateful for at the time, I finally had someone else in the house to play with. Unfortunately shortly after the arrival of my brother things in our family took a turn for the worse. For some reason which I will never be able to understand my father got involved with some very shady people. One thing led to another and he got addicted to drugs, lost his business and started sleeping with other women. Well when my mom found out she refused to put up with my father's behaviour, he eventually moved out and my brother and I did not hear from him for more than 11 years. (I later found out due to his lifestyle he had gotten on the bad side of some drug dealers who were determined to kill him and he fled to California)
As I mentioned before my family was very religious, both of my parents at a young age were associated with Jehovah's Witnesses. Since my parents were devout JWs my brother and I were very ingrained into the religion. Growing up my brother and I were taught not to associate or play with worldly children (anyone who is not a Jehovah's Witness) so outside of school I rarely interacted with kids after class. Fortunately there were quite a few other JW kids who lived close by so I was'nt really starved for friends. Grammar and high school were pretty uneventful years for me I basically just kind of casually made my way through the classes, teachers would always tell my mom I had potential but I did'nt apply myself enough. I guess I just was'nt interested enough back then to put up to much of an effort. After high school I enrolled at a technical school for computers and industrial electronics, for the first time learning was fun. I guess seeing real world applications of the things I was learning ignited a fire under me and I absorbed everything like a sponge.
A few months after I finished tech school I landed my first PC tech job through the help of one of my older relatives. The experience was good for me not only in terms of job training but also in life. The majority of my lifespan had been spent in basically an all black community and now for the first time I was working and interacting with people of all races and backgrounds. I made some really good aquaintances during that time, but I also had my first experience with racism. One evening after work I was walking towards the train station a truck with about 4 or 5 white guys rode along side me yelling racial slurs and throwing beer bottles. I was scared as hell, I was working in a suburb far from home and I did'nt have any friends in the area. Thankfully after some more yelling they moved on. I experienced more racism after that event but not quite as severe as that first experience.
I eventually moved onto other jobs through-out the Chicago area and gradually began building up a fairly decent work history. At 23 I met my wife through a friend of the family, she was also a devout JW like myself. We dated for almost 2 years and eventually got married. Things were fairly uneventful for awhile until I started doing research on my religion one day. I'm not sure what initially motivated me to look up the history on JWs but I learned more about the religion in 3 months than I had in 20+ years. I discovered that there were a lot of skeletons in the closet of this particular relgion and this knowledge eventually led me to break apart from it, which was'nt easy because at the time I was a full time minister giving 5-6 talks (sermons) a month and a variety of other related activities. Last year I finally broke all of my ties with the religion and now I'm slowly trying to rebuild my life. Its been difficult my wife and my family who still are JWs are constantly trying to get me to go back to the religion, however I can never go back to something I know is'nt true. I'm currently trying to learn how to trust people and make new friends. All of my life I've been told to avoid building relationships with anyone who is'nt part of the religion so its challenging trying to overcome that type of thinking at times. But things are'nt bad for me however, I've been doing well with my job and I've also been really successful with some investments I've been working on. I'm hoping to take a year off very soon and do a little traveling and some other things I've always wanted to do. Outside of that I spend a lot of time playing video games and reading posts on this board.
Well thats my story, if anyone fell asleep and banged their head on their monitor I absolve myself of all damages.
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