I don’t remember what level I used to be, but I was around level 40 when I master reset. I don’t study japanese much anymore due to life and hobbies changing. but my SO knows that I studied it a lot before. Occasionally kanji will appear in real life and he’ll say, “what’s that mean?”
you know one of the worst feelings ever? the feeling that you knew something, but you simply don’t know it anymore. it’s just complete frustration, and only at yourself.
so now I just study kanji very casually and make no attempts to go fast. I do wanikani and Remembering the Kanji anki between 1-5 a day. between the both of them I know that I know at least 750 visually now.
I don’t have the time or motivation to study grammar or speaking or sentence structure or hearing skills. but the most rewarding is seeing a kanji and knowing what it means. I’m doing minimum effort right now, however, at least I’m doing something. and it makes me happy.
It’s ok, that feeling you mention of forgetting stuff you used to know well, is pretty common in life. After all, if you once knew it, it is way easier to re-learn it.
I studied the language for three years at university. After that I was finishing outstanding papers to finish my degree. After that I went back to work at a fulltime position in sales. Two years after the fact and very little use of the language since I now live in Japan with a monkey that lives on my back who is on fire that hits me in the face whenever I cant remember anything. So yeah I now the feels. My study sessions are conducted with a fury that I think has made my fellow teachers look at me sideways, but I refuse to let up or give in. Keep the fire alive inside even if anger is the fuel it seems to work for me lol