I don't know about all you gents, but when I was younger I do believe men and women were not as self centered as they are today. I personally believe that this selfie and tinder swipe culture has stripped all qualities of humbleness from men and women and made a lot of young people become so dependent on validation from others. We all know it, we've all seen it. I was part of it at some point too. Go on any dating site, tinder is just an ego boost for women. Check Instagram where all of these women need to be validated on how amazing their lives are through far too many filters. Look at the men that pine over these women. There are plenty of men that also seek attention on these platforms. Im sure many of you had probably seen snapchat at some point before you questioned why you were watching the most mundane things about people's days. There really isn't a point or anecdote im trying to tell here related to women, but the idea of going your own way. All I want to say is no matter how wide the spectrum is of MGTOW, whether you hate women or not (I personally don't), or you simply enjoy the idea of pursuing your life on your terms and your terms alone then do it. Thats what drew me to this community. The simple fact that there is no definition to what MGTOW is. This isnt an activist group. Its not a hate group. Its not a universal philosophy. Sure theres a lot of posts about hating women, red pill theory, and a lot of angry posts, and a lot of these do take it to extremes where it almost sounds like incel stuff. But in the end its simply a collection of men good, bad, angry, and many other men who at some point realized that the best thing to love and pursue is ourselves. Thats the one thing we all have in common here. And it's that commitment that I have that made me decide a year ago that I was done with all social media. Done trying to display my life to others. Done trying to pursue relationships.The only people worthy of knowing the successes of my life are the friends Ive kept close. And I want to thank this community regardless of the stances you take on what going your own way means for you. 2 years ago I attempted suicide after going through depression and an ex that was ruining my life with accusations and breaking my world around me. All I wanted was to finish my engineering degree and create a stable life for us. I got kicked out of university, thought I was worthless, and thought there was no point to live this life anymore. So I tried to overdose on painkillers and failed. But after months of mental recovery, and several mental checkups Im happy I didnt become another male suicide statistic. I went through much of the phases you see on here. I too went through the anger. I too went through hatred. But I decided to let that all go last year. And I'm happy to say that I finished my degree at university, and finally got a job as a software engineer. I picked up guitar and found a new passion in my life, began boxing and am slowly approaching the best shape I've ever been in, I learned how to invest, and I finally bought my first car. And the best part is... I did it all for me, and me alone. Thats what MGTOW meant for me. To isolate myself from the outside world and crawl from the depths of the life I had back then and to return as someone who beat the odds. Thank you all, I now think I'm ready to leave this community behind, and continue my life. But not without one last piece of advice from a quote that helped me make the jump to go my own way...

"If you can live your life without an audience you should do it" - Bo Burnham