Friends we left behind

“I still feel compelled to steal”, I admitted to my closest friend, Laurence, pictured above. She chuckled. I told her I stole all the time as a kid. Here I was, grown up, married, a trained auditor, an OT.

It was weird, yeah. I didn’t have any need to steal. It was just some kind of quirk in my wiring, I guess.

She was a great friend. We hung out all the time at CC. She’d never snitch on me ever. And I would never snitch on her.

That may be one of the biggest killers of friendship I can think of. Friends confide in each other. In Scientology, that’s extremely hard to come by.

I wish I knew where and how she was doing. I found her on social media a few years ago, but of course Scientology disconnection is too strong for the friendship we had.

I hope she is doing well and is ok. I’d love to see her again and see how she is.

I think we all did make some true friendships in Scientology. And leaving is huge. We walk away from all of those people. They aren’t ready to come with, and we can’t stay anymore.

That’s how it was for me.

And then there’s this:

A birthday card sent to me while I was in Venezuela which was signed by all New World Corps staff.

Yeah, that is the entire staff in 2003. That’s the entire team training to deliver Super Power, the building at Flag that was still a pile of dirt when this card was sent to me. And the Universe Corp team, the other section of New World Corps, that was tasked with gifting OT Levels to staff members all over the world.

Matthew Veenker was the CO, in charge of the organization. So many other names, maybe if you were around then you might recognize a name or more.

Many of these people I knew for a very long time.

There were, oh rephrase, there are people in the Sea Org still who have that kind heart and friendship, but are still governed by the strictest of rules that they feel the need to follow.

I wonder about these friends sometime.

I wish they would come out and say hi.

I don’t bite.