I was raised a Jehovah’s Witness and became a stripper AMA

I was born in Louisiana to a Jehovah’s Witness family. My mother had recently converted my catholic father into Jehovah’s Witness right before I was born. The next door neighbor had converted my mom while my dad was working long hours. It was like they preyed on us. I grew up not knowing what birthdays and holidays felt like.

My family moved back to the northeast when I was a toddler and we lived a humble life for a few years. I left the church at 16 but my parents tried to forced me to attend. I was later kicked out of home at 18 for getting a tattoo. My sister had ratted me out for the tattoo. She knew my parents would be pissed about the tattoo but she was always jealous so she was looking for anything to use against me. I became a stripper because I didn’t know how else to save money for an apartment. I had to live in my car or a boyfriend house for a couple nights before I could afford my own apartment. I do not recommend working in the industry. Thankfully a lot of my clients were rich old men. A lot of them would tell me to keep my clothes on and sit and chat with me in the vip room. I was treated pretty good luckily. But that is rare and you can’t expect that always to be the case in that industry. This feels so weird to even talk about because it was 20 years ago. It feels like I am talking about another persons life. My life is nice now. Very calm and I am busy working a normal job and taking care of my kids. I enjoy talking to people and hearing their stories. The most important lesson in all of this is forgiveness. Being raised this way taught me the power of forgiveness. Letting go of the past. I forgive my parents and other Jehovah’s Witnesses because I realized they are uneducated and mentally ill people. They have been preyed upon by a cult. I wish I can help them. I forgive my family and I forgive myself for making the mistakes I made in my past. The point is we are all here just trying to make it up as we go. I do not want my kids to ever end up like me and I doubt that will ever happen. I would never turn my back on my kids and I would give my life for them.