Your worst year might be the one that handed you your best friend. Hard seasons come with strange gifts.

Difficult periods sometimes contain things you would not have found otherwise, and that is worth saying carefully. The hardship was not a delivery mechanism and nothing about it was necessary; it simply happened that in a stretch where you had nothing left to perform with, someone met you as you actually were. Honest conditions produce honest attachments.

If you are in a bad year, look at who is actually present rather than who is missing. Those people are seeing the unedited version, which is the only foundation that holds. Nothing about this makes the year worth it, and the connection is still real.