Duolingo or Die

When I started Duolingo 97 days ago, it wasn’t because of how many days  I could rack up in one streak.

Nor was it because of how many lingots I could earn.

Nor was it because of all the cool stuff I could buy in the Lingot store.

I didn’t even know there was such a thing as streaks or lingots or Lingot store?!!?!

And I certainly didn’t do it because I wanted to amass an adoring crowd cheering me on as I conjugate verbs in Spanish.

All I had was this long-standing dream of learning new languages and the fascinating worlds the skill opens up.

More practically, I wanted to talk with Margaret, the crossing guard in her language.

Plus, I like making people laugh, which is almost a given when I start practicing my butchered linguistic skills on a willing victim.  

Sadly, life sometimes gets in the way of making dreams come true. So was my sob story until, earlier this year, I stumbled upon this amazing free app.  Suddenly, my  life-long dream came literally within reach of my fingers!  

I joyfully and a bit sheepishly started clocking in my bare-bone minimum requirement day after day. I wish I could have been more ambitious, but I learned that setting my bar low spares me of many a disappointment in life.

High or low, I faithfully jumped  through the tiny hoops and was instantly rewarded with huge sense of accomplishment for reaching my pea-size goals.  

It was pure delight all around. I felt I was learning so much and my brain and my heart were so happy they were doing the dream-come-true cartwheels.  It was so bad that even my family noticed that something was up.