This summer I'm doing something I've been dreaming of for at LEAST six years--more accurately, the last 19:

I'm spending several weeks in Italy with my family.

Even typing that sentence makes me go WHOA. This is a dream come true. I've got journals from 2018 in which I talk about wanting to do this very thing.

Welp, it's happening. Plane tickets are bought, very tentative plans are in place.

To prepare, I'm doing something that brings me a lot of joy: learning Italian.

I loved studying Italian as a student. I've been studying intensively for the last two-ish months (due mesi).

For me this looks like: listening to an Italian language-learning podcast daily and practicing with Duolingo.

I'm constantly translating things from English to Italian in my head and trying out my Italian on my family. It's super fun for them! (#jokes)

As fun as language learning is, it is also tedious.

When I venture into deeper waters--seek out videos of Italian speakers going full steam--I'm inevitably demoralized.

That'll never be me, I think. This was a dumb idea. I won't achieve fluency.

Then I remind myself that the slow, tedious way IS the work.

I'm taking the long route on purpose.

I started Duolingo (again!) from the beginning.

I'm not jumping around seasons on my podcast; I started with season 1, episode 1 and am working my way through all eleven seasons.

You may be asking:

Why all this effort? It's not like you're moving to Italy.

But...I guess we never know, do we? And I've always wanted to gain fluency in another language. And I LOVE it. So...

(You know where I'm going with this, right?)

It all reminds me of writing a book.

The job is so big, you can't comprehend that showing up daily and getting in your measly word count is making a difference...but it is. That's how you do it.

You start to question yourself--"What am I doing this for, anyway? This was a dumb idea."

And then you remember--"Hey, I want to is reason enough."

In tackling big, OMG-what-was-I-thinking projects, you always have two choices:

You can feel terrible about how far you have to go, or you can appreciate the daily progress you're making.

Embracing the appreciation mindset is a choice. I'm consciously reminding myself to choose appreciation every day.

That's the mindset that will get me to my ultimate goal of Italian fluency.

Un giorno alla volta (one day at a time).

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