The last month or so, I’ve been studying French in the wee hours of the morning.

At one point last week, a little voice inside me whispered, “But how cool would it be to grow deeper Spanish language roots?”

I considered that. I set down my French materials, got up from where I’d been sitting, and went to retrieve the easy Spanish reader I’d once bought. I opened it up and was flabbergasted when I saw the date I’d written on the first lesson: 12/30/17.

Recently, I’ve had the sense that I alway...