Some of the best years of your life won’t look impressive on paper. That’s not how you’ll measure them anyway.

Some years are good and completely unimpressive on a list. No awards, no title, nothing to announce, and somehow the stretch you later describe as one of the best: steady work, a few people you liked, days that mostly went fine. Lives are not actually measured with the instruments people use to compare them.

Check which scoreboard you are using when you judge your own year. Ask instead whether you liked your days and who was in them. If the answer is good, the thin paper version does not need defending.