The final days over here always feel different.

The calendar slows, the days feel softer,

like time itself is standing in the doorway, waiting for us to notice.

You glance at the last page of the year.

Just a few squares left.

And there's this strange mix that washes over you.

The year feels impossibly long and impossibly short, both at the same time.

Am I the only one feeling this?

I'm Chad Lawson, and let's comment down in three, two, one.

A year holds so much laughter that left you doubled over.

Tears that wouldn't stop.

Days that felt endless.

Then moments that disappeared before you could hold them.

Maybe this year surprised you.

Maybe it disappointed you. Maybe it did both.

Because a year is never just one thing, right? It doesn't just come neatly wrapped. I mean, it comes as like this mix of light and dark and joy and struggle, right? The highs and lows. You think back to January.

So remember who you were then? What you thought this year would hold? Some of it happened,

and some of it didn't. I know a whole lot of things you never

saw coming up showed up anyway, right? And that's the thing about a year. It has its own ideas.

And as this December is closing, it's tempting to give it a label, to call it good or bad or a win or a loss,

something to celebrate or, oof, something to forget.

Here's the thing.

...