Back after a 7 month break

[mollylouise]

I’ve barely browsed the community, and have never posted, but seeing everyone share about their pandemic slumps has refilled my depleted motivation. It’s really incredible how seeing you’re not alone can be such a powerful motivator.
Pre-lockdown, I was in a new town where I didn’t know anybody, and had just scouted out some Japanese language meet-ups to attend. Needless to say, that didn’t happen lol. My speaking skills had already gotten rusty, but now I can’t even put a sentence together.
I know I’m not the only one on here who thought lockdown would give them all the time in the world to study Japanese but then that just…didn’t…happen.
In March, I had 700 reviews and 456 lessons. The approach to self-study I’ve always taken is “don’t do it if it isn’t fun.” Well apparently, I didn’t think doing my lessons and reviews sounded fun for 7 months. Logging on October 8 and seeing 888 reviews triggered some anxiety for sure. I couldn’t look at the dashboard without my heart racing a little, but 888 on October 8 was such a nice evenness to it that I dove in anyway and now have it whittled down to 350 reviews! Once it’s under 100, I’ll start lessons again.
Half way through writing all this, I realized I have no idea what I’m trying to say here. Maybe I’m just hoping by putting this out there, I’ll have some accountability to keep me from getting overwhelmed and dropping off again. Maybe I was just happy to see I’m not alone here.

But to everyone who is making their way back on here, great job! Maybe you get stressed out looking at all the reviews that have stacked up, or were close to burning some radicals and kanji and now you can’t remember what they mean. Don’t worry about it and just push through! It’s still in your brain somewhere, you just gotta tease it out. And for the love of god don’t try to power through your review pile too fast. Feeling like you HAVE to do something is the fun killer (i think paul atreides said that once…)

[Joeni]

Welcome back! I did a 7-month break once and it was hard getting through that stack of nearly 1000 reviews I had to face, but it was worth it, in the end, to get back on track. Well done getting back on track so fast, it took me a couple of weeks to get the stack down to 0 last time.

Also, since this is your first official post…

\textcolor{pink}{\huge \textsf{WELCOME! ^-^}}

Even if you’ve been a member for a while, so aren’t really new hehe

Take the time to check out the FAQ and GUIDE if you haven’t already…
…but you probably have, because you seem like you’re diligent and awesome like that ^-^

There’s also a lot of good stuff on the forum to help you…
…that you’ve likewise probably already seen, but it still worth mentiioning!

The Ultimate Guide for WK
The Ultimate Additional Japanese Resources List!
The New And Improved List Of API and Third Party Apps

I hope that you continue to enjoy WaniKani that your worship of the Crabigator is eternal!

[tls]

welcome back
yes you can do it! … step by step. keep us posted about your progress. I’m sure it is helpful and motivating for others coming back after long time or struggling to keep up with their reviews.

[insupekuta]

Welcome back mollylouise! Hopefully this go-around is better for you. I am rooting for your continued success in your language journey.

keep chugging along and you’ll be there in no time! All the best!

[KyokaJiro]

Welcome back to the WaniKani Community Molly san Great work on completing the backlog Here’s to a fulfilling and learning journey ahead

[Greenfire311]

Well, welcome back to WaniKani! I also took a 7 month break unintentionally. I was in a depressed slump. I wrote a whole post about it on here like you did. When I wrote it all down like that I was able to see my emotions in words and better understand them. I feel a little bit better now. I also came back to a ton of reviews, but I am not getting through them as fast as you are! Kudos to you! I’m still pretty hard in the hole. I’m getting there at an ant’s pace! But that’s okay! I’m back.

You keep up the hard work!

[mollylouise]

Oh hey! Your depressed slump post directly inspired MY depressed slump post and helped me kick my butt into gear to start doing reviews again! The WaniKani community is lovely like that, huh?
I have full confidence you’ll get out of the hole. It’s not how hard you dig, just that you keep digging!

頑張ります！

[Greenfire311]

Oh that is hilarious! Yes! I’m glad we are both BACK! I’m sure there will be more slumps over the years for me, but hopefully nothing as bad as 2020… 2020 is the worst year.