Kind of? Like others, I wonder where I would be if I was encouraged to go to school. I did not even start half ass living until I was in my 20's. The problem is, I was so emotionally stunted and so far behind the curve socially, I have not even caught up yet. I have ZERO family, so I missed out on that support for the past however long I have been out. When you go from a utterly toxic upbringing your entire life, to being thrown out into the world ill prepared for bugger all, and then have to do all the growing up and everything on your own, you can't help but wonder what if. That said though, what can you do? Everything I did and whatever happened to me after I left that enviroment, made me who I am today. I look back and in some respects, I can blame a LOT of bad things on the cult, and if you twist things enough, you can blame everything on the cult if you let it. The secret is, not letting it get to you, and infect your life now with any of the toxic elements of the past. (as hard as that may be)
It is a tad bit to late for me, but it is for damn sure not to late for my family. My wife is getting her education, my kids are having a non toxic emotional enviroment in which to grow up, where a parent is raising them, and I am the one that gets to carry all the burden of raising them and also allowing the wife to do her thing therebyallowing them to realize their full potential. I am not trying to come off like a martyr either. The situation is how it is because of our (wife was a witness as well) past. As an aside, not all of the cults past life for me is bad. I met my wife on JWD.(8 freaking years ago!) If it were not for our mutual background and looking for answers, then none of this would be possible and I would have never met the of me life.