Hi Toby.......welcome!
I opted to pioneer where the need was great after high school. Never Bethel. My little congregation was in NW PA. Met my future wife there and learned how to fish for trout....... so I had my rewards.......... really big time with my wife.
I liked the people in my old KH growing up and where I served. However my beliefs faded before I did. We left the religion when I was 22. Turned out my wife never believed in it and I finally thought my way out of it. What took me two years to figure out would take me two days on the internet. jwfacts.com has everything you need to know told in the WTBTS's own words.
Our decision cost us old friends. But our families still spoke to us. Any how we just left. Moved and before we even noticed it we were living a new life. Never looked back and never felt we had lost something.
True believers weren't interested in our reason's for leaving. It's a social club that they wanted to keep.
I had thought about sending a letter of disassociation to my old KH but this could cause my wife's relationship with her family some difficulty.
A JW today has grown a lot more mean spirited. They are ignoring a growing pedophile problem with law suits increasing. The Society is about as clean as the Catholic church........ rotten to the core.
There is absolutely no reason to send them a letter of disassociation. They will announce that you are no longer a JW.....but they will not share your reason. Like others you have taken a principled stance.
But when that announcement is made you'll get lumped into a cesspool of speculation. Your sexual abusers, you must be on drugs, a criminal etc. People will think the worse about you which helps them stay strong.
Your reward is to live a productive life not a JW delusional life waiting for a world that will never be.