A hard year can still be a good chapter. You just can’t tell while you’re in it.

Judgment about a stretch of time is only available afterwards. Inside it you have the discomfort and none of the outcome, so any verdict rests on half the evidence. Some of the years people value most were miserable to live through and only turned useful later. That does not make a hard year secretly fine; it means the assessment is premature.

Try postponing the verdict instead of delivering it now. Keep a note of what you are learning and who has shown up, even if it is short. If this one turns out to matter, that note will be the only honest record of it.