Life Stories

When I was in the Army I learned the difference between y’all and all y’all. And yes there are more than one type of southern accent.

-LT04

Okay, here’s my story in brief

I was born in Kitchener, Ontario in 1975 - my parents are from Winnipeg but they were studying at a Mennonite college there. Then at 10 months moved to Winnipeg. I have an older brother and a younger sister. My ancestry is Russian Mennonite - actually from the Ukraine. Grandparents emigrated in WWII.

At age 5, my family moved to Germany, where my Dad worked for the Mennonite Central Committee, and then came back to Winnipeg when I was 10, in 1986. After High School, I went to Canadian Mennonite Bible College for 3 years - anyone noticing a theme? For those who don’t know, Mennonites believe in adult baptism, the priesthood of all believers, pacifism and social justice (at least my brand does).

In Bible College I grew increasingly unconvinced with the faith, but only 10 years later after lots of struggle did I come out and declare myself agnostic to my family. Fortunately, they still love me. I just worry that they will try to brainwash my kids.

Anyhow, after bible college I got a B.A. in International Development Studies. I then did some voluntary work with Mennonite Central Committee as an office assistant with the Peace & Justice department. I then got a job as national conference editor with the national denominational news magazine. From there I went to work for the Communications Dept. at Mennonite Church Canada as a newswriter and webmaster.

Somewhere around this time I met and fell in love with my wife Maggie, and our 5th anniversary is coming up in May. She’s cute, funny, really nice, and smart, and I have no idea why she fell for me. I still can’t keep my hands off her, I can’t keep myself from hugging her everytime she walks into the room. Every night when we fall asleep I tell her that I love her and I always will.

Anyhow, working in all these church organizations as an agnostic got a little awkward, so I decided to go back to school. I entered law school (LSAT, 83rd percentile or something like that I think) where I did all kinds of stuff, ending up student council VP in 3rd year, and I was awarded the “Class of 1980 Award” for outstanding extracurricular involvement by my graduating class.

I am now articling with the Public Interest Law Centre and losing all my illusions of achieving social change. In about two months I will start my first job as a real lawyer, as a junior associate at a small litigation boutique firm. We own a nice old house (2000 sq. ft) that’s a 20 min walk from my new downtown office and fixing this house up has been our main project for the last 4 years. I know I could earn a lot more as a lawyer elsewhere, but there’s no way I could afford a house like this in Toronto or Vancouver.

My first political memories are from living in Germany and going on anti-nuclear protest rallies with my parents. During 9/11 I was sitting on the toilet in my brother’s house. The next day I broke down in tears while listening to a memorial service to the victims.

@froodster:

In Bible College I grew increasingly unconvinced with the faith, but only 10 years later after lots of struggle did I come out and declare myself agnostic to my family. Fortunately, they still love me. I just worry that they will try to brainwash my kids.

Well, this prompts me to tell the story of another life.

As those who remember me from the time I used to post regularly on this board might now, I’m German. I grew up in a very religious family and there was a time I really believed in God, Jesus and the devil, who scared the hell out of me. My family is catholic, but my mother is active in the charismatic movement. I’ve been to religious gatherings and once I was even made evangelizing people on the street (I despise people misusing their children for such purposes). But the older I got the more I realized, that faith is nothing real, it doesn’t support you. I became more and more depressed, I couldn’t imagine living without some kind of religion. Around 17 I started to drink, a lot. I don’t think I ever was an alcoholic, as today I have no problem with drinking just one glass of wine. But one day at age 20 I woke up in a hospital after passing out the night before. After that I had a huge hangover, not only from alcohol but from religion as well, everything I used to believe in fell apart. I realized, that an omnipotent being couldn’t be at all like the God portrayed by the Bible. How could such a being change its mind after drowning every being but those on the arch. I pretend that I still believed in some kind of God, as I still believed that there is a need for a meaning of live. But finally I realized that this is bullshit. You don’t have to rationalize everything you do. There is no need for a reason to do good things instead of bad. Do you really think, the only reason not to molest a child is because you would be punished in hell? Haven’t you noticed how good it feels to help someone? Anyway, when I let the last remains of my religion go, I felt a burden go away.

Soon afterwards I started studying physics at university. i got a “Vordiplom” in physics (somewhat comparable to bachelor) and shortly after that a “Vordiplom” in mathematics. After that I spent one year in the USA studying math. It was a cake walk. I took the hardest courses which were offered, and they were still easy. I got the impression, that the science education in the USA sucks. There are very few very exceptional universities, but the rest is just crap. I was horrified how little the engineering students knew about math. Just to make it clear, scientific research is rather good in the USA, there is more money than in Germany and many foreign professors move to the USA. But this is threatened by the current cultural climate.

When I came back to Germany, I was a little bit shocked how hard things had become again. It took me longer to finish my studies than I had hoped and expected, in fact my final exam will be this Tuesday.

P.S.: Christian family values? Read Mathew, 10:34ff to learn what Christianity does to families.

Meijing,
Iâ€m not trying to argue with you (youâ€re a lawyer come on who would win this debate?)  but the way I have always seen it is you need faith to believe in God. You also need faith to believe there is nothing. Thatâ€s just gospel according to me but Iâ€m curious as to what you think of that as I have never met an agnostic before. I live in northern NY where our diversity mostly consists of tall white Catholics, short white Catholics, fat white Catholics and thin white Catholics. (No Iâ€m not a Catholic, Iâ€m a Mormon. Although to be politically correct I should say Iâ€m LDS but most people donâ€t know what that means)

-LT04

@losttribe04:

Meijing,
Iâ€m not trying to argue with you (youâ€re a lawyer come on who would win this debate?)  but the way I have always seen it is you need faith to believe in God. You also need faith to believe there is nothing. Thatâ€s just gospel according to me but Iâ€m curious as to what you think of that as I have never met an agnostic before. I live in northern NY where our diversity mostly consists of tall white Catholics, short white Catholics, fat white Catholics and thin white Catholics. (No Iâ€m not a Catholic, Iâ€m a Mormon. Although to be politically correct I should say Iâ€m LDS but most people donâ€t know what that means)

-LT04

You need faith to believe in God, but you need doubt to not believe in God. Not believing God does not mean, to be sure, that he does not exist, but to be not sure, that he does. Giving up religion means embracing doubt. This probably sounds awful for a religious person who was brought up to believe that you need to be absolutely sure about something, but in fact it is not.

I was born at an early age.  I think my sign was “room 224”.  ba-da cha!

I was born March 4/73 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to two loving and caring parents (mother and father for some of you).  I grew up in a Christian home as well, went to church, went to church-camp, and i was on a Christian TV program for 6 years.  I was baptized when i was 16 years old.  I am technically a Christian, and i attend church and give them money from time to time (and i’m a big believer in the Mennonite Central Committee), but i guess that i’m still searching for truth (admittedly, i’m pretty lazy w.r.t. this as i’m quite busy in other respects and tired most of the time).
I graduated (w/ honors), got my B.Sc. in Chemistry (i focussed on advanced organic and biochemistries).  I then did an M.Sc. in Biochemistry and molecular biology and published 6 papers (including my thesis).  
I quickly got bored with this life, and looked for something with a little more fun in the job description.  I then became a “territory manager” for a pharmaceutical company.  I did well here (the quarter before i left i got the highest bonus out of around 300 reps) and was in a fast track to a management position.
Still i found the job to be very easy and although i enjoyed it, something was missing.  If i had a bad day, it was because one of my key clients didn’t have enough time for me - not because anything actually BAD had happened.  If i had a good day, it was because my numbers came out and showed me to be growing my business well and both me and my masters were becoming wealthier.
After one of my clients - a physician - banned me from his office for not giving him presents (it was against the rules, even tho’ several companies were doing it anyway) and changed his patients from my product to that of my competitors, i got quite angry.  I figured - fuck him - i’ll go into medicine, and be a better doctor than he is.  The fact is, i was being told from all over that i should go into medicine  I thought that here would be my chance to make a difference in people’s lives, to do something challenging and to be involved in people’s lives at a very real and personal level (i also thought that this would be a handy way to escape work in the salt-mines for when the aliens from Grargrotha IV invade us as they would want someone to keep their slaves happy . . . but i didn’t tell this to the interview board).
So i studied medicine for 4 years, then i did a 2 year family medicine residency with an interest in emergency medicine.  Currently i work in 2 ER’s, 1 urgent care center, and i have my own patients in my private practice.  
I love to travel - for 4 years i made it a practice to go somewhere and hang out for a month.  Last year it was Vancouver (i was with my then-g/f and working in the Vancouver General ER) and also Australia (i understand that it was a cold winter that year in winnipeg . . . :)).  The year before i travelled about Cuba for a month.  Before that was Belize.  I also spent around 6 weeks in Portugal with a girl i was dating - long story.  I’ve been to Mexico (several times) Brazil, Barbados, Holland (my uncle was a diplomat there) and Germany as well as all over the US (Phoenix, Boulder, Moab Utah, D.C., Seattle, Minneapolis, ND, SD, Miami, Tampa and Atlanta) as well as from sea to shining sea here in Canada.
I love women - i’ve dated over 50, but i’m down to one right now.  She’s beautiful, brings me supper when i’m working late in the ER, keeps my house clean, and her son does yard work for me (he’s 14, and a good kid).  
My political views are mixed - as most people can tell.  Particularly since my father recently secured the nomination for the Liberal party for the riding of Charleswood/St. James/Assiniboia and Headingly (around 80 000 people live here).  If he wins the next federal election, then he will be their Member of Parliament (traditionally a tight race) - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2306058560&ref=mf
I’m sure there is more, but lately my life has been work-sleep-work-sleep.