I've got a 5-string which I've had for a few years but after the initial 6 month buzz of starting to learn something new - I got the banjo to learn clawhammer - I got side-tracked when I joined a (non-folk) band. After that, any time I could spare related to playing music was taken-up elsewhere. Subsequently, the banjo got put on the back burner. Then, when I gave-up playing in bands for health reasons, I promised myself I'd take it up again with gusto but I never did - I'll pick-up and play for a few hours but that's about it really.

Regarding 'my own take on it' and taking from existing skills/knowledge, I often found myself using the banjo to play a kind of jazz, (pickless) 3 finger style 'chord/melody'.

I did the same when I started playing the ukulele previously. Once I understood where to find inversions &c., instead of really pushing it as rhythm instrument and going for some of the more complex strumming, I seemed to be more interested in a chord/melody approach with simple strumming patterns or often picking rather than any strumming at all.