The thing is, you don't know that you would be better off socially had you gone down the normal path. School suppresses kids and forces them to conform. That's

The thing is, you don't know that you would be better off socially had you gone down the normal path. School suppresses kids and forces them to conform. That's probably the thing it does more strongly than anything else. And it does it even more strongly to shy kids. So you might've missed out on deep friendships, but maybe not. And you almost assuredly missed out on bullying (physical and emotional) and negative, oppressive social pressure during those formative years.