the age of aging.

it's upon us. i'm now closer to old than young. it seems that most people in the entertainment industry's ages are ambiguous. you look at emma stone. you don't see a 23-year-old. you look at sarah silverman. you don't see a 41-year-old. you see zac efron. you don't see a 25-year-old. at least i don't. since wikipedia has been a thing in modern society i've been obsessed with the "years active" element. it's on the top right hand side of the page. and basically. if you're an entertainer, it marks the year to which society has legitimized your attempts at stardom. for louis ck (born 1967) it marks 1985 as his start. fresh faced, and 18 years old.

every year i get older i see that "years active" as further away than i had hoped. vanessa bayer's "years active" started in 2009, apparently. then one year after being active she was announced as the next cast member on SNL. therefore, it takes only 365 days to make it onto one of the most iconic shows of your and my life. please.

it's interesting how that works. how do you measure when someone first started getting going to where they're destined. don't all things lead to where you are now, so technically it starts at birth? or is it more specific than that? when you landed your first commercial? or industrial? get on your first Harold team? signed up for your first class? — and who decides?

i've always been on the track of being a bit smaller than everyone else — lumped in with the little kids growing up. constantly thinking i wouldn't get to ride the ride. while my attitude has always outwardly been, i can do it, i'll show you; i've lately been feeling like i haven't yet even decided to ride the ride. haven't yet become "active." i dont know if it's in comedy, or the work place, or relationships, but getting older has made me feel like i've missed the boat to so many places.

at a certain point this year the realization that we all will just keep getting older punched me. turning 26 isn't that big of a deal if you're 50 looking back, but it marks a very real moment where you feel like you should have already set up what the rest of your life will take to execute. that's not to say there isn't room for change or spontaneity, but very rare is it that you find someone who found their calling at 30, and then was able to execute it to their greatest ability.

but, isn't that just part of it, part of the journey of becoming active. i'd like mine to say this, years active: all.

might as well cheers 26, because 27's a'comin'!