I’ve mentioned before that I’m not big on making new year’s resolutions. That being said, I do like to set up a goal or two…something to focus on…when a new year rolls around. For 2015 I put my focus on acceptance. Accepting the various challenges in my life. Accepting who I was. Not sure how successful I was at that but I don’t regret setting that up as my focus whatsoever.
So when it came time to ring in 2016, I thought of what I wanted my focus to be for this year. I’ve spent a lot of time adding things to my bucket list over the years or saying “I want to do this” or “I want to eat there”; from simple things to more complex things. For 2016, I wanted to stop making excuses of why I couldn’t do certain things on my list and stop procrastinating on doing things I’ve wanted to do for a long time or said I was going to do.
One of those things was to relearn French. I took 3 years of it in high school and was able to use it on a trip to France with my mom and aunt but since then, I’ve lost my handle on the language. I’m hoping to visit France later in the year so I decided there was no time like the present to start relearning the language. I downloaded an app called Duolingo (it’s free and actually pretty good) and bought a school-esque French workbook along with a French dictionary from Amazon to get myself immersed in learning to speak French again.
It’s been really exciting and I’m surprised at how much I actually remember and how easily it comes back. I’m glad they actually made us take a foreign language in high school because I think our brains were like big sponges back then and because of that, we’re more able to retain that language so it’s not so hard to try and refresh it later on in life.
The best part about it though is the feeling of accomplishment for actually doing something I set out to do; something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Every time I complete my practice for the day or do an exercise in the workbook, I feel ecstatic knowing I’m no longer just sitting around saying I want to relearn French but am actually doing it. I’m extremely lucky I have a friend who speaks French and has a husband from France so when I brush up on my francais a little more, I can practice with them!
So 2016, here’s to no more excuses and no more procrastinating! Less talk, more action. Je parle francais.
Disability & Determination 
Reblogged this on The Accessible Traveler.