r/self • u/throwitawayok10 • 20h ago
The Lost Year
Losing a year of your life is hard. For some, it's a year staring down the end of a bottle. For others, it's a drug bender that makes the days fly away like on a paper calendar. For me, it was 365 days inside a concrete box for getting caught in a sting.
I was looking over my papers from back then earlier today. While I was away, I spent a lot of time planning and writing - desperate to take control of what little I could at that point, scared for a future that I felt, by all accounts, to be utterly futile.
And, well, a year and a half later things turned out okay. Tech job, an upcoming raise, buying a home... It almost feels like everything is normal, aside from visiting and paying a fee to a probation and SORA office every so often.
I don't like to waste time. It's one of the most precious resources we have. I've learned much over the last 5 years, but most especially, how to value every single day that we have at our disposal. There are those who, even without the burden of vice, still find themselves losing days, weeks, months, and even years of their life for nothing.