Hello lightofgold.
Part of the reason of why I chose Spanish was because I was at a small Christian college in the US, and I met people from other countries that knew English as well as at least one other language. At first, it was annoying to me when I heard them speak in different languages in the cafeteria, but then, as time progressed, I realiized I was the crazy one because I only knew one language. It’s always been in the back of my mind to learn Spanish, which is such a common language in the US, and since I completed my Duolingo Spanish course in early 2017, I’ve tried to take it seriously. I’m reading my 3rd Spanish book, which I hope to complete by early October 2018. Reading is hard because I purposely read difficult books. I believe as long as reading continues to be a habit, it will get easier and easier.
Lightofgold, I’m starting to document my progress in a a brand I’m developing called First1000Hours. If you want, you can listen a podcast I created called: “How I Read My First Spanish Book: Mistakes & Lessons Learned” at How I Read My First Spanish Book: Mistakes & Lessons Learned - YouTube. I talked about how I read my first book before I started using LingQ. (This is an unlisted video on YouTube right now because I haven’t really launched my brand yet, so you get early access to it by listening to the podcast if you want).
I know a person who speaks English and is learning Portuguese to a very high level. I call her my motivational language partner. We speak in English about language learning strategies and our language progress, which has been really helpful especially this year for me to be even more serious about learning Spanish.