I've never felt like I improved at all, until now

Last season i started playing lol, and placed silver 5. I never climbed too high, peaking at silver 2 and ending at silver 4. This season, i placed bronze 2 and got to silver 2 within 50 matches. After a bit of grinding I hit silver 1, which is when i thought i might be improving a bit since i got ranked in s6. Today, I hit gold. It was then that i realized that i have gotten better, and that maybe all that time in season 6 wasn't useless. Cant wait to climb through gold, so i can finally be as good as my friends, that is if they aren't diamond by then.