A year-in-the-life is a journey through elephant bowels. It is dark, you're all squished and surrounded by poo and all you want is to make it out the other end in tact, and able to see daylight.
The problem is, your travel companion for the duration is a year's worth of excrement, hopefully slick enough to at least make the exit pleasant. Happy New Year, enjoy the home stretch, and I'll see you out the other side.
