are you perhaps hiding a bit in your "recovery"?
going back to my "spanish the car" reference - remember i said i "seem" to only be reasonably marginal when i'm IN my car. because it's safe! i'm not actually speaking spanish to anyone, therefore i am not making any grammatical or pronunciation errors that anyone else would hear or notice. i have a recorded voice telling me what to say, then patiently waiting while i fumble through it and even telling me Good Job!
a couple things i've learned.....this new language stuff ain't easy....for ME. i forget a LOT. but i'm not forgetting everything. i'm probably not going to be holding lengthy conversations IN spanish with ANYONE at the rate i'm going, at least not be Noviembre!! but i might get as far as name, occupation and closest bathroom, all in one go! LOL
nobody is tracking my progress, but me.
nobody really CARES about my progress, but me.
and if i never take my lousy espanol OUT of the car, then what was the point?
recovery is so much the same.....it's NOT a race, it's NOT a competition, there are no BEST RECOVERY OF THE YEAR awards ceremonies.
if you had decided instead to take up bird watching, at some point you'd have to put down the All About Birds book and go outside and LOOK for birds!