Stepping stones

One day you're going to walk the length of the country (of course not in 1 day!) the way that A.H. Reed did. (Remember him? He came into your classroom to give us kids a talk when you were 11 and he was in his 90s.) What's more, you're going to do it barefoot. I'm not kidding.

It won't be easy, but you'll do it. It will hurt, but it'll be right up there among the best experiences of your life.

Along the way, you'll learn a hell of a lot about yourself, and about life.

For example, you'll understand the importance of focusing on one step at a time.

It's crazy to look at the endpoint of some l o n g project and decide to be satisfied only when you get there, because that will make you hate every step that you take except for the last one.

It's like: "not there yet, not there yet, not there yet, not there yet . . ." instead of  "great progress, great progress, great progress . . ." 

Learning a language is going to take time, irrespective of how you do it. May as well enjoy every bit of progress instead of beating yourself up.

And besides, there's no actual 'last step' in a language-learning journey.