I don't mind. My mother is an atheist and my father is agnostic, so I've always had that influence my whole life. (I also went to a Methodist church sometimes with my grandparents, but that honestly did not do much for me, especially as a teenager.) As an adult, I never believed in God - the Christian God - until February of last year. So that's a long time, no? I explored a lot of religions and non religions and had periods where I was into paganism/new age stuff (but found that to be a lot of hooey, honestly), Buddhism for a while, and I also spent periods of embracing strong atheism. I've read a lot of atheist material online, which really puffed up my pride. I'm still working on that.
The main thing that characterized those years was that I felt strongly that the Christian God was not real, or if He was real then He definitely did not deserve to be worshiped. I hated my perception of that God, no exaggeration, and that hatred was strongest when I was an atheist.
This quote from Fr. Seraphim Rose, which I read for the first time only recently, sums up quite well my experience as an atheist:
Atheism, true existential atheism, burning with hatred of a seemingly unjust or unmerciful God is a spiritual state; it is a real attempt to grapple with the true God Whose ways are so inexplicable even to the most believing of men, and it has more than once been known to end in a blinding vision of Him Whom the real atheist truly seeks. It is Christ Who works in these souls.