I am a long-time ‘Fader’ out of the JW religion almost twenty years.
In reading all of these experiences and looking back on what we endured with these conventions decades ago (travel, inconvenience and discomfort) because we were told we ‘should’ and the usual tripe about ‘spiritual food’ and ‘association’. We (or at least I) had not been totally disillusioned yet. The Millennium hadn’t come yet and there was still that fervor that some people had.
But, I realize I would never put myself through any of this now..and its not just because of age!
Those days are a bygone era.