A Quarter of a Century
Last night at acting class, one of our youngest students was performing an improv and she made a comment of feeling so old, at the ripe young age of 20. Now, I'm only 25, but her comment tickled me and I couldn't help but giggle for some reason. Then I heard giggles from behind me and looked back to see that nearly everyone else was tickled by her comment too. Then I became even more tickled that most of us found her comment funny.
We're a pretty young class, most of us are in our mid to late twenties, but I had a sense of feeling old because the young actress felt old at 20. And that's why I first snickered because, in her world, then, I'm old even though I'm actually quite young. But at the same time it made me appreciate the age that I'm at and where I'm at in life.
Turning 25 this year, I had a lot of people ask me if I was depressed about it. I wasn't depressed at all and didn't even understand why they would ask that. Then, I mentioned it to my best friend who turned 25 a couple weeks before me and she said that indeed, she was depressed about it. She was a quarter of a century old and it made her realize all of the things that she has not yet accomplished.
She moved to Seattle straight out of high school, didn't go to college, got married and had her first son when she was 22 and now, at 25 with two kids, she's trying to go to college and part of her wishes she would have done things differently. But, I think it's all in the way you view it. I went to college straight out of high school, worked in real estate at the same time, and had my degree by 24 (not to mention 7 years of real estate experience). Yes, that is a great accomplishment, but I didn't have much of a life...I studied and worked all the time. I didn't get to travel and I don't feel like I had the time to do any true soul searching. I don't have any beautiful children to add subtance to my world. But, I'm not depressed about that at all. Everyone has their own path to take. I might have an English degree, but my best friend has two beautiful little boys...which is better? That's all in the eye of the beholder.
The one thing that I worry about with my age is acting. I had a friend who went to film school and moved to L.A., worked on the set of The West Wing, and rubbed elbows with some well connected people. His wife is a model and she was auditioning and trying to get an agent. He told me how they altered her drivers license to make her age younger because once you reach a certain age as a woman, it's tough to break into Hollywood. He told me for years that I should get my butt down to L.A. while I was still young enough, but I wanted to finish college. Now that I'm 25, I have this fear that I'm too old to make it now, which is a silly fear. It's silly because I'm still pretty darn young and also because I never truly wanted to move to Hollywood and try to "make it."
Anyhow, in that moment last night, after T's comment about her age, I felt a kinship to my "older" classmates and the memory of it stuck with me all day. I appreciated that they, on some level, felt the same way that I did. I cherished it for the thought provoking moment that it was.
Love,
Aislinn
We're a pretty young class, most of us are in our mid to late twenties, but I had a sense of feeling old because the young actress felt old at 20. And that's why I first snickered because, in her world, then, I'm old even though I'm actually quite young. But at the same time it made me appreciate the age that I'm at and where I'm at in life.
Turning 25 this year, I had a lot of people ask me if I was depressed about it. I wasn't depressed at all and didn't even understand why they would ask that. Then, I mentioned it to my best friend who turned 25 a couple weeks before me and she said that indeed, she was depressed about it. She was a quarter of a century old and it made her realize all of the things that she has not yet accomplished.
She moved to Seattle straight out of high school, didn't go to college, got married and had her first son when she was 22 and now, at 25 with two kids, she's trying to go to college and part of her wishes she would have done things differently. But, I think it's all in the way you view it. I went to college straight out of high school, worked in real estate at the same time, and had my degree by 24 (not to mention 7 years of real estate experience). Yes, that is a great accomplishment, but I didn't have much of a life...I studied and worked all the time. I didn't get to travel and I don't feel like I had the time to do any true soul searching. I don't have any beautiful children to add subtance to my world. But, I'm not depressed about that at all. Everyone has their own path to take. I might have an English degree, but my best friend has two beautiful little boys...which is better? That's all in the eye of the beholder.
The one thing that I worry about with my age is acting. I had a friend who went to film school and moved to L.A., worked on the set of The West Wing, and rubbed elbows with some well connected people. His wife is a model and she was auditioning and trying to get an agent. He told me how they altered her drivers license to make her age younger because once you reach a certain age as a woman, it's tough to break into Hollywood. He told me for years that I should get my butt down to L.A. while I was still young enough, but I wanted to finish college. Now that I'm 25, I have this fear that I'm too old to make it now, which is a silly fear. It's silly because I'm still pretty darn young and also because I never truly wanted to move to Hollywood and try to "make it."
Anyhow, in that moment last night, after T's comment about her age, I felt a kinship to my "older" classmates and the memory of it stuck with me all day. I appreciated that they, on some level, felt the same way that I did. I cherished it for the thought provoking moment that it was.
Love,
Aislinn
posted by Aislinn at
6:06 PM
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