The best (and worst) years of your life...

1979-1983: No particular memories

1984: Was fun at the time.

1985-1986: Really shit.

1987-1990: Not much better.

1991-1995: Kill me now.

1996-1997 : Unmitigated disaster.

1998: Dear God, why me?

1999: The best ever, by a long way, ever. Apart from the time I was so hungover my skin went semi-transparent.

2000: Got off to the best possible start, dropped off a bit around July, though. New Year's Eve was fun.

2001: Work=shit. Home= much the same. Relationship = cool as ever. Life collapsed around Christmas.

2002: Started badly, now going quite well on the whole.

Best: 1996 (passing A levels well, fantastic carefree summer, starting university, falling in love for the first time)

Worst: 1992-3 (changing school, being bullied, parents divorce, generally being 14)

Worst: 1998. Fucking dire. Two suicide attempts, suspended from school four times, intense psychiatry, Italy get knocked out of the World Cup on penalties... rubbish.

Best: 2000. Hazy. Oh so hazy. Did fuck all all summer. Loved every second of it. Met the love of my life, got set for life... just great.

Hard question to answer. Some years are both the best *and* the worst, like these last two actually.

No matter how crap a year is I tend to look back on it with some fondness. Maybe I live a charmed life.

On paper 1997 was the worst - job going nowhere, medicated, almost fucked my relationship up terminally, drifting apart from several friends. But when I think '1997' I think of warm weather, of a happy Christmas, of the election night, of French food and discovering Motown. Blimey maybe I'm an optimist!

Best year? 1992 was fantastic but the memories have faded slightly. 1995 was lovely too but petered out. The downside of being an optimist seems to be that nothng stands out too much...

Best:

2001 - For far too many reasons to list - graduating from university, spending a hell of a lot of time sitting round in the sun in foreign climbs, a few shall-we-say unique experiences, general feeling of having a great sense of community all around me, being unemployed and actually enjoying it. I could go on.

1995, 1997, 1999, 2000 - just because they were a hell of a lot of fun, and at the end of them I looked back and realised just how FAR my life had come on in the right direction since January. Hopefully this one will go the same way.

WORST:

1996 - Three deaths in the family in the space of one year. Pretty much says it all.

1998 - Stuck at a university I hated, general depression, sense of being alone and finding things utterly pointless, all alleviated by by decision to jack my entire life in and do something different in December. By 'different' I mean doing much the same thing somewhere else, and having a lot more fun doing it.

1993 - Worst year ever at school. Parents unemployed, no money anywhere... horrible now I look back on it.

2000 may have been both the best and the worst: riding off one of most miserable winters ever (no money, horrible job, long distance relationship, plenty of other "issues" besides), i moved home for the spring-summer and it was one of the best ever (money! pop muzik! parties! a feeling that my aesthetics were expanding to the point of not being able to take everything in that i wanted to! romance! [unfortunately not with my girlfriend, uh...]) i finished off the year by deciding it would be a good idea to get married, so i moved to nyc with my girlfriend, the relationship fell apart, i became a nominal alcoholic, and ended up moving out by january anyway. blah.

now that i think of it, 1996/7 was probably the best: a fresh start in college after the last few miserable years of high school, breaking out of my shell, losing weight, getting a girlfriend, and then, all of my roommates moving out of my apartment/dorm the second semester and housing never filling their spaces. so my girlfriend and i go to live in a 2 bedroom apartment (more or less), rent free, with money, no job, hardly any classwork. it will probably never get better (read: easier) than that.

1992: possibly the worst year ever, miserable and teased.

1995: teenagers shouldn't spend so much time thinking in their bedrooms.

2001 (first six months): you should never allow someone to treat you like that and still continue to sleep with them.

But then:

1994 the period I first got into music properly.

1996-97 great summers, starting univeristy, happy, more confident.

And this year isn't shaping up too badly.

I dunno, the past just all merges into one after a while. Summer 2000 was great coz I saw Bon Jovi at Wembley.

WORST:

2001: No particular reason, it just really sucked. Dog died. Self loathing. Bad haircut.

1998: More self-loathing, very odd goth phase.

1994: Freshman year of highschool. I think this could make a year suck just in itself.

1987: my dad was unemployed. seriously money-weirdo mother made life living hell.

BEST

2002: Is rad so far. Fallen in love, graduated from college.

1999: Seemed like a good transitional period where I feel like I became more of the person I am now.

1993: Remembered as a good year in my mind. Not sure why.

I think I agree with Ned and Tom about the optimistic part. I can't really judge my life so objectively as to say "that year was bad because of x" etc. I've always had a belief in the brilliance of moments, like when you forget about time and stop thinking "am I happy, was I happy?". These moments are not happening that much at the mo, I'm very aware of time and my moods, but I'm sure it'll pass.

Like Tom, even years that I know were crappy at the time I remember positively now. 1997 was probably the worst - I lost touch with a couple good friends, and I barely left the house in the summer - but now I mostly recall the good things that happened, like making a lot of new friends in the fall.

Worst: end of 1987 into 1988. Oldest brother dies, his best friend promises to be my surrogate big brother, then dies, forcing me to go to his wake on my 15th birthday.

Best: 1993 and 1999. Summer of 1993 I get to go on a five week singing tour of Japan, Korea and Taiwann. Summer of 1999 I got married and went to St. Thomas for what was probably the most enjoyable vacation I've ever had.

I change my answer to jel's.

I can't even remember/think about my life in terms of years, let alone evaluate them. Like Jel, it's more moment-based and processual. Plus I've never been really happy, so I don't have a benchmark.

I should modify my answer a little to say that I have lived a charmed life in some respects - I've been heartbroken but it worked out OK; I've never suffered a major unexpected bereavement; I've never even lost a job. So I've never endured big singular events that could have turned a year bad - badnesses have been long-term with plenty of time for happiness to sneak through too.

Worst:
1986 - My grandfather dies. Quite possibly the worst moment in my life, he was my role model.
1988 - Fres up in limbo. I could go on for days about the first half.
1994(first two semesters) - Dean College, Chris falls in love hard. Finds girl in bed with friend of his. Chris has major depression issues. Spends most of first two sememsters crying and eating cheese sandwiches while listening to Toad the Wet Sprocket "Don't Go Away".
Best:
1983 thru 1987 - All the fun of childhood, it was good. Baseball after school, parents in love. Nice home.
19hman year of High School, fat, awkward, and pimply.
1992(first half) - Father cheats on mother, divorce. Father loses big VP job at bank and it all comes crashing down. He has a nervous breakdown, committed to hospital. Lose house. Mother, sister and I end up in limbo. I could go on for days about the first half.
1994(first two semesters) - Dean College, Chris falls in love hard. Finds girl in bed with friend of his. Chris has major depression issues. Spends most of first two sememsters crying and eating cheese sandwiches while listening to Toad the Wet Sprocket "Don't Go Away".
Best:
1983 thru 1987 - All the fun of childhood, it was good. Baseball after school, parents in love. Nice home.
1992 and 1993 - Get kicked out of Catholic high school for being discipline case. Go to Grafton high school (where i grew up) 100lbs lighter and with Smiths t-shirts. Girls flock to new Chris who weighs 175lbs and likes cool music.But I do lots of drugs and this becomes uncool after bad trips.
1994 (second two semesters) - Decide to forget about Nicole, move out of dorm and into new dorm. Drink lots of beer, party and get laid. ITs what college is all about. Learn the hard way, get kicked out at end of year.
1996- Meet fiance at party at Wheaton College. Fall in love two weeks later.
2000 thru present - Things are great, I've got a good job, own a home and am getting married. I may speak to soon, because bad luck follows me everywhere.

some really bad HTML mistakes in mine. Ignore them.

Every year better than the last, definitely.

Thee best were when I was in 2nd year comprehensive SK3WL, b/c I was happy, + we had a canal holiday, which r0x0r3d. Whatever year it was that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" hit, because even tho my job was SHIT, I met mrs k-rad, & still had some good times. Thee worst by a comfortable margin is this year. I will not bum you all out with details tho'. The last 3-4 years have really fukcing blown, aktually.

worst:
5 years of High school. (damm grade 13/OACS)
Best:
5 years of university. (Its all about the victory lap)

Best: predictably, when I went off to college. I miss it.
Worst: 2001; within one 3 week period i broke up with a long time boyfriend, then 9/11 (I knew a bunch of people who worked in the trade center), then my best friend died in a car crash. I didn't really cry for about 6 weeks because I was in such a state of shock.

I find all this stuff about Uni/College/etc being the best time of one's life quite bewildering. I couldn't wait to get out of Uni, I had such a crap time. The working life is the one for me.

Perhaps that should be better interpreted as "the non-studying life is the one for me"

Where the hell did this year go?!

do years get faster every year until you die? this year was the fastest ever

according to old people i've talked to: yes

apparently yes they do - the trick is to do as much as you can, the year still seems quick but you remember much more about it

or keep a diary, I managed this for 3 weeks, and they are the 3 weeks I remember the most!

Well, if you think about it, when you're ten a year is a tenth of your life, and when you're 30 it's only a thirtieth of your life. You don't take up any more space in time at 30 than you did at 10, so it MUST seem faster, because it's a much smaller proportion of your life.

yes they do :(

on the other hand i have got a bit of stuff done this year so maybe :)