I’m not sure about all of you, but this time of year I get a little bit of 1st-world anxiety dealing with all the year-end “Best of” lists. Mostly, it’s seeing so many people writing so passionately about things that I totally didn’t experience. So much music that I didn’t listen to! So many books! I haven’t even heard of that movie! I don’t have HBO!

If that happens to you, this wonderful essay by Linda Holmes might make you feel a little better.

Surrender, on the other hand, is the realization that you do not have time for everything that would be worth the time you invested in it if you had the time, and that this fact doesn’t have to threaten your sense that you are well-read. Surrender is the moment when you say, “I bet every single one of those 1,000 books I’m supposed to read before I die is very, very good, but I cannot read them all, and they will have to go on the list of things I didn’t get to.”

Don’t stress out about it, but that’s easily one of the best pieces I saw this year.