In a lot of ways, 2013 will go down as a kind of annus horribilis for me, both personally and professionally. The end of this year has found me laid off (twice), broke in a new city, worried that I might lose the car I worked so hard to pay off, accumulating debt again, taking on a sketchy roommate, and generally feeling like I’m trapped back in my post-college years again.

Basically, I found that many of the things I thought were secure and a sure thing in my life were built on some frightening mix of quicksand and fire ants. Super intelligent fire ants that will crawl into your brain and convince you that you’re talentless, unloveable human garbage before pulling you down to the depths.

One of those big changes was losing the stability of a full-time job and embracing freelance work. Moving from the comfort of a 9-5 work environment into the instability and tumult of freelancing has been a particular challenge. Anyone who’s made that transition knows that it’s moving from the safety and security of knowing where your next paycheck is coming from to having to be like ODB when it comes to your cash.

And as I attempt to crawl free of this year and into 2014, I thought I’d reflect back on some of the lessons I’ve learned as a freelancer. By the way, this isn’t going to serve as some how-to-get employed guide, because if I knew that, I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this piece.