Everyone has at least one year of their life that's considered foundational to who they have since become. You might even be able to think of yours off the top of your head as you're reading this right now. We tend to remember the ages that shaped us the most, especially the more recent ones. Today's Vlogbrothers video is a great example of how taking the time to reflect on a year can change our perspective on it tremendously.
Welcome (or welcome back!) to Vlogbrothers Rewatch! This is an ongoing series of articles documenting my journey through rewatching the videos on the Vlogbrothers (formerly Brotherhood 2.0) YouTube channel. Using this playlist, I'm making my way through these videos in chronological order, one per day, starting from the very beginning.
Hank is able to look back on his 26th year with both awe and sadness -- reflecting on all the good things that happened while also acknowledging that he wishes that some of it could have been better. And isn't that the way all of us should look at our years -- celebrating what went right while allowing ourselves to regret the things that did not go our way?
Some people engage in this kind of self-reflection at the end or start of each calendar year, and others reserve it for the end or beginning of a new year based on when their age increases (if they do so at all -- reflect, I mean). It's an important exercise in self-improvement, putting into the universe the things you both appreciate and wish hadn't gone the way they had.
This is how we can effectively remind ourselves that things always get better, even when it seems that could never happen. No matter how bad of a year you may have previously had, there's no guarantee it's going to be bad again the next year. It's comforting. That matters.