I am free to use MY time the way I want. I just took early retirement and I can only imagine the pressure to evangelize and to reach out for service privileges I would have been under if I hadn't left the cult.
I am free to think and reason to reach my OWN conclusions. I can freely speak out when something doesn't add up and I don't have to go along just to please others.
I have a much more positive outlook on life. I no longer focus on what's wrong in the world or expect that it's all going to blow up. Instead I focus on the positive things and I look for the good in people. I no longer condemn or criticize others for not being like me.
I have come to terms with the fact that I have only this life, that I will grow old and die. It's much easier than living in hope that I have done enough to make it in the new system. There's no stick and carrot enticing me to exist to please others. Because life is short, I spend each day doing what makes me happy...and it works.
I no longer have faith or a need to believe. Gravity, wind and electricity have been proven - you need zero faith or need to believe - they're facts that can't be questioned. God, his kingdom, the bible can only make sense if you have faith. Often faith trumps facts and truth. In this day and age a growing number of people believe that the earth is flat...
I am free to help others in the way I see fit. The WT mags I handed to the homeless may have only served as toilet paper. The food and small change I give fulfill a real need and gets immediate results. My donations no longer support a rich printing corporation that just built their paradise on earth headquarters.
My friends love me for who I am, not for religious affiliation. Many times my closest JW friends moved to the neighboring congregation and I would no longer hear from them unless I initiated the contact. Now that I am inactive none of these friends ever call. They tell my wife to say Hi to NVR2L8. On the other hand the only reason they would befriend me again would be to lure me back in their cult.
Leaving the cult comes with a price. My wife is still a believer. When I was a devout JW ministerial servant she followed me, but now she's had to do things on her own which emboldened her in the cult. We no longer have discussions on religion and the simplest comments on the WT triggers threats to our marriage from her part. At this time I have no hope that she will ever wake up. It's all not bad since my younger brother who is a long time elder and my sister know where I stand and they both said that it would never change our relationship. My sister just retired and said that we were not supposed to grow old in this system...maybe there's a crack in the dam.