[Redway]

And by that I mean a year in your personal life that (to your memory) was preceded by a better one but didn’t match up to the previous whatsoever.

2019 for me. Absolutely dreadful. 2018 was far from perfect and I had a million and one issues that year, same fundamental existential discomforts that were there for the 11 years prior, but I was also in a fairly decent place overall (minus the borderline alcoholism), earning decent money and on a steady-ish path, even if I could’ve been further along the pole if it wasn’t for certain circumstances in 2017. 2019, on the other hand, was one of the driest years of my life and unlike 2021 (which was bittersweet and mostly not my fault in terms of the bad things I experienced), most problems of 2019 were entirely of my making. And I was the skintest/with the least access to money that year than I ever was from any point in time that matters as far as having some income goes. I just was not living well, and it didn’t improve until 2020 (Covid, which in some ways was actually a blessing for introverts, or no Covid; further trying circumstances or not). 2020-24 hasn’t been perfect by any means but things have definitely improved across the board for me since that dreadful year (2019). Like I said 2021 was tough but bittersweet and I grew a lot experientially that year through those horrible experiences (and it ended on a somewhat better note). It’s not everyone who knows my beef with that year who’d understand how fundamental those experiences in 2021 were. They might never know the full story. Nothing about 2019, on t’other ’and, added to my personal development in any way. I could’ve done without it being such a crappy year but that’s just how it was.