The past 12 months were the most remarkable year of my life, both personally and professionally. It was also the most enriching, enlightening, eye-opening and gratifying year.

And why is that, you may ask? You see, as the clocks turned from 2018 to 2019, only a small cohort of colleagues, family members and friends knew about my past struggles with mental health disabilities. Only a small cohort knew the real reason behind my 11-week leave of absence from work toward the end of 2017. Only a small cohort had ever heard me utter the words—or, more aptly, diagnoses—depression, anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder.