I left in '99. Part of the reason I am out is because I could never, from the age of 14, completely swallow the expected daily regimen of bull. While in the JW, this problem directly impacted the ability to create and maintain permanent friendships, which meant a reduced experience in creating and maintaining (any) friendships at all. Now that I am out, I have infinite opportunity to craft any such friendship that I desire, but I am past a certain social-brain-formative point of really being compelled to. There is no real substitute for an adequate circle of friends in which you can offload and confide, and I have just enough to keep me part of society. But of more importance to me personally: by being as far away from the JW experience as possible, I have infinite opportunity to think, conceive, apprehend, comprehend any idea, thought form or emotion that I please. Anyone leaving would do well to count the cost by assessing how much time they (already) spend in their head versus how much time they (already) spend in human company. (Being out in service, for me, did not count as being in human company.)