Level 60 at last! - Slow and unsteady sometimes makes it somehow

[Sylph]

Finally finished the WaniKani DLC!

I’ve actually been level 60 for a while now but the forum didn’t notice until now, when I had to manually log out/in so it would let me make this thread. I’d say I wanted to wait till I had the kanji in this level down, but mostly I was procrastinating.

When I started WaniKani back in 2016 I had no idea it would take me this long, but life happened and I’m thankful I grabbed lifetime early. I’m most certainly not here to be a model to anyone, nor to discourage anybody, just sharing how it was for me and have a little fun.

First, please allow me to show you these nightmare stats:

(From https://www.wkstats.com/)

I started one nice summer, just before the last year of my first degree, so I was progressing along at a leisurely pace until reality hit, then slowed down and stopped altogether every time exam season or some other life event came around. I was on one level for longer than a year at one point!!

Sadly some of the earliest data seems to be missing, but in the heatmap I can almost follow all the events in my life that had me pausing WK. Dang, some of those months are looking thin. You can even see how productive the lockdown was

If you want to get though WaniKani quickly, definitely don’t do what I did!
But if you never stop completely you can make it eventually, even if a million things get in the way. And sometimes that’s just life. Since I started WaniKani I have finished two degrees, started working, lived in 4 different places and 2 different countries, lost a frankly absurd amount of family members at different points, been on vacation, been working like crazy… But I always thought to come back to WaniKani when things calmed down, and here we are now.
Definitely get lifetime if you are going down this path though

I believe one of the biggest reasons I never forgot about WaniKani is that I kept coming back to this forum, even when I had stopped doing lessons and reviews, because of all the bookclubs and incredible community here. Seeing everyone’s progress and reading all the conversations about books, games, etc. gave me my motivation back time and again, and although I may not have a lot of WaniKani-ing left, I’m definitely staying for the community, so thanks to everyone that has contributed to that! I basically live in the Book Clubs and Reading subforums now.

[flowjam]

おめでとう！！！！！！ On to greater and scarier things from here ：）頑張りたまえ

[Rrwrex]

Persistence is the most uncommon human virtue.

Congrats!

[MissDagger]

Well done, @Sylph! Well done!

I was wondering if I’d missed you becoming 60 when I saw this post was yours, but it was the forum is bad at updating level circles. xD

I was just thinking today how weird it is to actually have reached 60. I might have come to WK a couple of years later than you, 2018 for me. But knowing myself back then, heck, knowing myself now. I’m still amazed I made it (Dec 2022).

I’ve started so many things and I’ve quit so many things. Japanese is one of those things I kept coming back to and WK became an important touchstone. Like you, it was also a lot due to the community.

I look forward to hanging out more with you in book clubs and the reading section, exactly the sections I only hang out in too. xD

[Kumirei]

@Sylph

Sadly some of the earliest data seems to be missing, but in the heatmap

You’re one of the lucky few who were around before WK started collecting review data

[wiersm]

Congratulations!! Awesome stats

[DudefromDiscord]

Persistence! You’ve earned it, congratulations.

[Sylph]

Thanks everyone!!

@MissDagger

I was wondering if I’d missed you becoming 60 when I saw this post was yours, but it was the forum is bad at updating level circles. xD

I’ve been an undercover level 60 for a bit haha. Now I have to get used to the yellow… at least it goes with my avatar I guess

@MissDagger

I’ve started so many things and I’ve quit so many things. Japanese is one of those things I kept coming back to and WK became an important touchstone. Like you, it was also a lot due to the community.

I feel you. Learning Japanese was one of those things I’d told myself I’d definitely do as a teenager but then left after a few days, so when I started WK I didn’t really expect to keep at it for too long… and maybe it was that lack of expectations that allowed me to not burn myself out in the first few days, and the community helped me keep coming back, so even though now it seems so natural to be reading stuff in Japanese, looking back I would have expected to quit a long time ago… I guess we really did level up P:

@Kumirei

You’re one of the lucky few who were around before WK started collecting review data

I do feel privileged Btw thanks for all the great scripts!! Sometimes I used the heatmap to motivate myself to keep a streak. As you can see I often failed at it but hey, everything counts!

[tremendo]

Congratulations and thank you for sharing!

[raindrops]

Thank you for sharing your story ! I’m on a similar trajectory and it’s really comforting to read and celebrate your accomplishment and perseverance! Well done !!!