Great topic Merry M.
Even though I spent the majority of my adult life trying to get in the door of the Kingdom Hall, from the age of thirteen to finally having crossed the border at 33, for those years in between, even though I was in the bosom of the world, the world still never acquired my complete trust.
The world, because Jehovah's Witness indoctrination, was a place that I could not relate to. Despite the fact that I was in the midst of it. I'd come to be a misfit, in real life, and within the walls of the Kingdom Hall.
My revolving door processing thru the years only made the witnesses suspicious of my true motives, and as far as the world goes, I was never able to effectively relate to them, either. I was preconditioned to view them as bad, evil and of not much value as human beings to even socialize with.
Now that I'm out, it is one of the greatest challenges that I face when wanting to share in the worlds activities, social gatherings, one on one hanging out to play video games, even my worldly family members are put on hold, birthday parties and holidays, are often forced, though I usually can find the room to let go and the social excursion often takes on a life of its own. It has been one of the greatest challenges to living, however, no longer being a practicing Jehovah's Witness.
One of the only gracious outlets that exist is the world of employment, there I can at least socialize, although enforced on account of the fact that we are required to be in the prescense of each other, yet even there it has a tendency to be superficial, as those for the most part I've been employed with have rarely been regarded as friend worthy, and that's from both sides of the street. Though in my life there have been a select few that I was able to forge relationships with apart from the job, they for the most part have been few and far between.