Back in 2012 - those halcyon days where nobody dreamed that a cough in the supermarket could shut down your internal organs and have you hospitalised - I decided to challenge my dislike of Scotland's native Gaelic language and try learning it via resources in my local library.
As with most things I start, it fell by the wayside almost straight away because I wasn't immediately brilliant at it. TBF it didn't get off the starting blocks because Gaelic is a very difficult language to master from books - sounds and letters don't correspond the way they do in other languages.
Fast forward to 2019 and the year when a cough COULD shut down your internal organs and have you hospitalised and I took up Gaelic on the Duolingo app.
Reader, I stuck with it for over 1,000 days - did the introductory course twice and completely fell in love with the weird little fucker. One thousand days - that Duo streak lasted longer than my marriage.
I have since had a 15 week zoom class with other furrow-browed natives as we plough through the slenderising, the lenition, the irregular verbs and downright contrariness of Scottish Gaelic - and made new friends into the bargain.
From there we undertook a mammoth 30 week session with our indefatigable tutor Pàdruig Moireach. I loved it, but, by Jimminy - it's a hard language.
Even when that set of lessons rolled to a close, a little bunch of us decided to soldier on and we bought a few more lessons from Pàdruig. But what were we aiming at? Why were we putting ourselves through the hell on earth that is the Genitive case, the 16 words for 'the' and coping with no words for yes/no?
Reader, we decided to sign up for our Nat 5 in Scottish Gaelic via E-sgoil (online tutoring). Last year it was about £70 to take your Nat 5, this year? Nearly £400. The £70 figure was, of course, subsidised and the £400 is what it costs to sit a Nat 5 (a Nat 5 is what we in Scotland used to call an O-grade). Just think of all the O-grades we sat back in the mists of time, with no thought that they had to be paid for, somewhere.
We started last week - just a getting to know you session really - because the onboarding process was not without incident, but we all seem to be online now. There are over 30 of us taking our Nat 5, which can only be good for the future of the language.
Why am I putting myself through the hell of another exam?
It's something to aim at. Look at me, fearlessly ending a sentence with a preposition at my age! Gaining (one hopes!) a Nat 5 will show a standard achieved. Another tick on the sheet of life achievements.
I turned 61 last month and it was a lot harder to bear than turning 60. When you turn 60 your life is full of glittery cards and balloons and lunches out and people congratulating you and promising that life really can get going now.
At 61 there is a lot less of that. The caravan has moved on and there is no denying that we are over the crest of the hill now. Hell, there was even a report last week saying that there is a huge jump in the aging process at 60 (that's bollocks btw, I've watched videos that better interpret the statistics!). It would be SO EASY to take my foot off the gas pedal and just potter into my dotage - a little bit of gardening here, a little bit of watercolour there.
But I don't want that. I want to keep my brain active and my body moving. So what if I've become utterly invisible? I'm going to find a way to play that to my advantage.
I bought myself a new pair of running shoes for my joggy walking.
I got most of my hair cut off.
I am studying for a Nat 5.
I am looking after my physical and mental health much better these days.
Re-invention isn't the preserve of the young. And you don't need to wait until Hogmanay to make changes in your life. A Sunday night is as good a time as any.
If you want to change, you just start from where you are. I am minded of a quote from Twyla Tharp, the genius choreographer who writes so brilliantly about creativity:
If you are at a dead end, take a deep breath, stamp your foot, and shout 'Begin!' You never know where it will take you."
What are YOU going to do to get out of your dead end?!
