Like Andrea said, don't think of your life with the JWs as being wasted. Every person in this world has bad things in their past. But everything in our past helps to make us the person that we are now. Of course, the longer you are out of the religion, the more you get used to enjoying life. I've been out for 30 years or so. New things keep coming into my life, even though I am 75 years old. You have a lot of years to enjoy your freedom.
...Bill

Faith, without proof, is superstition.