A chassidic tale comes to mind: An am ho’oretz wanders into a shtibbel on erev YK as people are preparing for Kol Nidre. He picks up a siddur and looks in, but he is bewildered by the many pages and strange letters. All around him are covered in tallesim, humming, wimpering, so he goes up to the front where the Rebbe is sitting facing the people. He asks: “Rebbe, where are we holding? The Rebbe looks up, and in tears says: Me? I am holding by last Chanuka!”
If you can, try rereading the slichot, and if you can find them in an old mahzor, the Slichot for Yom Kippur. I came into possesion of a stand alone volume of slichot YK from Zhitomir about 130 years old, with pages dimpled I think by tears. You can also find them in old mahzorim from the twenties often British, but the english translations are not true to text, or as regesh provoking. Hatzlacha in Avoda