Even though i found about MGTOW more recently, i will say that i have lived with it's ideas for a long time. Kindly indulge me a bit.

In grade school, there was this thing whereby the girls and the boys kind of segregated themselves very starkly. Talking to the girls was bound to invite a lot of hateful teasing. So, i just stuck to this way of thinking and with time, i was speaking more with the boys than with the girls on an average day. I was technically a MGTOW in grade school! Well, the teachers caught on to this 'trend' and turned it on us. Their devilish sense of punishment for a boy was to sit sandwiched between two girls. Oh, the dignity would practically melt from the 'poor' boy all lesson. lol.

Moving to high school completely obliterated this dynamic. Suddenly, speaking to girls was the in-thing. I think you can imagine where that left me. It was very confusing. I watched as my guy friends from grade school seamlessly navigated these coed spaces. At this point, let me clarify - i was not bitter or anything. I just tried to fit in. Luckily, i knew a girl from grade school and basically that was it. She saved me from unwanted teasing from the guys in school because this was an all boys boarding school. However, i did not change much. I still did not get experience talking with girls during that time. When there was an event at school and all the guys were out there mingling, i was dreading those interactions.And to be perfectly honest, i did not much see the point of them. Up to that point, i had gotten used to doing my own thing and just socializing with the guys alone, save for a few girl friends here and there.

Consequently, college only got harsher for me. While high school was a matter of dodging a few events in a semester, college was constant because it was of course, coed. In addition, there were constant parties where the consensus was that the only way to have fun was to get drunk and hook up with girls to one's heart's content. My MGTOW thinking at this point had pretty much become cemented as a lifestyle. I could barely keep up with social interactions. Since the population was basically 50/50 gender-wise, i quickly became antisocial. Group projects and group activities were a total pain because i felt like everybody got on together and i did not feel like i was needed by those teams. I still feel that way today sometimes and continue to move away from group stuff. Meanwhile, my squad of close guy friends shrunk to just very few. Later, when i came to learn that most people, including girls, thought i was gay, i felt quite angry about that. But looking back, i probably shouldn't have because i didn't really care about people's opinions of me anyways. I did try flirting with a few girls but that did not really go well, given my reputation as the weird, awkward, possibly gay loner. Which means that today, i have absolutely zero experience with relationships, girlfriends, etc (I will avoid giving advice on those areas from now). I suppose a stronger MGTOW is one who has had these experiences but still chosen to go his own way. But it doesn't keep me up at night.

My point is that GYOW is not easy. I have practically had this ideology from the start and looking back, i think i could possibly had better experiences had i not allowed it to turn into an antisocial lifestyle. Living life on your own terms is the essence of MGTOW, but i think that it should not move you away from people or keep you from enjoying life to the fullest. Therefore, i do not necessarily agree with MGTOW monk-mode. Take it from a guy who has basically given up the fun bits about being in College.