Serving time sucks. It's boring and you are cut off from the world you knew before going in. For me, it felt like i had died but i'm stuck watching my family and friends live on without me. The first year seemed like forever. But, as you point out, the place becomes a home and you adapt to your surroundings. The worst time is when there is something happening outside that you can't attend. For me I missed my mother's funeral, my children's graduations, their achievements, milestones in their life, the fact that you could only hear second-hand during visitation or get pictures that you are not in made it tougher. The best time in prison is when come to terms with your situation and you start to build a scenario in your mind of what you are going to do with the rest of your life. Once you succumb to the incarceration and stop blaming and being angry, you take responsibility for your actions and forgive yourself and others. Then begins the journey back... it starts with a routine that you can wrap your head around. Sticking to that routine will pull you through the balance of the sentence. The other inmates become neighbors and friends. The entire community thrives like any other... there are good and bad aspects to every situation. Learning to adapt and refocus yourself is the key to surviving the time.