'X' marks the spot

I've finally done it. I've made it to the end. I can dig up the buried treasure. I can claim my new and stronger staff from the mage. I can return the princess to the castle she was taken from. I can complete my quest. Before I do that it's always good to look back see everything that has happened before getting to this point.

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The Embarkment

At the very beginning, when this quest was first assigned, I had no clue on what I was going to do. Sometimes I had so many ideas I felt that none of them were significant enough. Other times I would have no ideas and would just sit there staring at a blank screen. When everyone was turning in their plan for what they were going to do I was still there wondering what the hell I was going to do. I feel I might have been stuck in that endless loophole if it wasn't for Manya (If you want a good blog then click here, if not then keep reading mine). She decided that she was going to do Korean because it was a language that she was always around. This made me think "Hey! I like languages. I should do one as well!" And you might say that I'm retarded because I didn't even think of doing a language before and to that I say yes. I am retarded. (I go into a little more detail as to why it ended up being Japanese in my first blog post).

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Rough Beginnings

Yeah so my blog posts were equivalent to garbage at the very beginning. Well, not the first one, I liked that one. Other than that, I hate the ones before December. To put into perspective how little I cared about the quest in the beginning just take any blog post that you think has the least amount of work on it. You got it? Good. Now divide that by ten. The answer is in the positives but it's basically zero. Whether that be hours, percentage of effort, or any other median you can think of, a small number is (most likely) a bad number. I was passionate about the Japanese but not motivated enough to do anything related to it. It's not that I felt bored doing it, I think it's because I had to go out of my daily routine to try and implement something new; previously I was not someone that would try and make a change of anything in my life and the beginning of the year with the quest was no exception. I wanted to do it but even when I was able to force myself there was nothing yielded.

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Turning Back is Always an Option

For half a year that is what I thought. "Should I choose something else?", "Maybe this was too hard for me", "Why could I not choose something easier" are just some of the thoughts that bounced around inside my excuse for a brain. I don't know what force kept me from changing it but now, as I'm attempting to remember all the tiny details so I can blow them all out of proportion for anyone reading this to make it seem I was in a more dire situation than I actually was, I am thankful that I never changed my topic.

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Burning the White Flag

I can't remember that last time I wrote that short a paragraph for this blog. The main reason it's so short is because I don't really want to talk about all the times where I was at my lows, I prefer to talk about how and why I bested them. I may not know why I never changed my quest, but I know there are things that helped me stick to Japanese after my decision. No they are not the same thing... I think. I have said this briefly in my previous post, I have said it in my presentation, and I'm going to say it here as well. My friends are a big part as to why I continued pursuing Japanese. Often they would come up to me and ask me questions about Japanese; how to say something, what does a word mean, and other things like that. Many times I would respond the same "I have no idea". Sometimes though, those rare times when I did know the correct translation and I was able to confidently say it made me feel that learning this language was all the more worth it. Yes, I would be a walking meme, but that made me happy. Why? I wish I knew myself. Through this reason and some others that are not as interesting to talk about I came to a decision that I would never quit on Japanese and I would destroy everything in my head that would even make me consider surrendering. (Insert WWII Joke here).

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Gritting my Teeth and Pushing Through

There are so many things that can be said about that sub-header that I'm not going to talk about because this blog is meant for school. After I removed my surrender option, the journey forward was not all smooth sailing. First I had to get myself into a rhythm of what time to learn Japanese. This is a lot easier said than done for me because usually I have to get something in my head months earlier before I implement it into my daily routine. There were many times I wanted to stop but I just kept telling myself to "bear with it for a little while longer". It took only about a week for it to become natural. Literally one week. "I have to get something in my head months earlier before I implement it into my daily routine" - Sebastian 2k18. Another thing that I thought was worthy of mentioning was the resources I used. It wasn't very hard to find good ones, but also not very easy. The very first few links or apps were not very useful so in the early stages I gave up pretty quickly, but when i decided to 'not surrender' I was more adamant to find things I like. It took around fifteen minutes to find the ones that I had in my January post (and one more that I found later on called 'LingoDeer' that in my opinion is more useful than all of them combined). That's why I did my January post as a review post in the first place. I know there are people like me that are going to give up if it's not easy, and I wanted to stop someone, even if it is only one person, from making that mistake.

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The Non-Existent Final Boss

Usually this would be the time when anyone writing a reflection would say "But my greatest challenge was yet to come" or something like that. That was not the case for me. After I was able to overcome my challenges during the middle there was nothing wrong. I studied Japanese every day and I learned more and more as time went on. I mean now I'm starting to do less but that because school and I have become one and I can't focus on anything but that (basically what I'm saying is that I have a lot of work); after the two weeks when I post this I do intend to (firstly, have fun, but also) continue to learn Japanese.

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Looking Beyond the Horizon

And now we are here. Everything that has happened so far that has lead to this point I have stated. What now? How do I know that I will continue my quest? I state that I will do it but we all know that I'm never good at sticking to my word. Is this the end of my Journey? Well, I got my dad to buy me a Japanese workbook. If that's not dedication then I don't know what is.

He tells me that he's proud of me because I'm wanting to learn a new language and all those things parents say, but I know deep down he is a very disappointed man probably wondering "When did he stray down that path? Was there anything I could've done to help? Why? Why have I been punished so!" (This is just a joke. Don't take this seriously). Even though I have stated in the past my dislike for paper usage I actually like workbooks because you are given things to do rather than having to write out everything yourself. Plus, because it's an entire book it's impossible for me to lose it. Uh... Scratch that; I know I'll find a way somehow.

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The very last 'some final notes for this post' I will do

You know it's kind of sad writing that title. I'll never be returning to this blog. It's amazing to see my progress and interest in the blog as time went on. In the beginning I would not put down that much and only do the bare minimum, I was scared to write how I felt. Now, I have to do a minimum of one-thousand words or it's not good enough and I have become comfortable enough to the point where I could put eighty-five percent of what's on my mind. It's not like I even have to force myself either; all of this writing that you see here is just me putting what I think on a page. I mean I do recheck multiple times but that's just to make sure it's not boring (I might blog my life when I go to university; if that's the case then I'll put it here). This quest for me has helped me be more open with myself to myself and with others. I don't think this year ends my journey though; if you have ever played an MMORPG then you know what I am talking about. Quests are minuscule things in a huge game. I have completed just one of many. There is still more treasure to be uncovered. There are stronger weapons to be claimed. The princess ended up being in another castle. The Japanventure has only begun. みなさん、さようなら (Everyone, goodbye).