*[or, Happy Birthday to Me]*

Apparently patience is on my mind these days.

I know [I blogged about it this weekend](https://www.joshuanewman.com/2013/07/give-it-a-minute/), but while reviewing notes from the past year, I also re-discovered this clip from the great [New York *Times* interview of Louis C.K a few months back](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/arts/for-louis-c-k-the-jokes-on-him.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&):

>*Does it matter that what you’ve achieved, with your online special and your tour can’t be replicated by other performers who don’t have the visibility or fan base that you do?*

>Why do you think those people don’t have the same resources that I have, the same visibility or relationship? What’s different between me and them?

>*You have the platform. You have the level of recognition.*

>So why do I have the platform and the recognition?

>*At this point you’ve put in the time.*

>There you go. There’s no way around that. There’s people that say: “It’s not fair. You have all that stuff.” I wasn’t born with it. It was a horrible process to get to this. It took me my whole life. If you’re new at this — and by “new at it,” I mean 15 years in, or even 20 — you’re just starting to get traction. Young musicians believe they should be able to throw a band together and be famous, and anything that’s in their way is unfair and evil. What are you, in your 20s, you picked up a guitar? Give it a minute.

Today, turning 34 (officially my ‘mid-thirties’), I’m finally old enough to start appreciating Louis’ advice. I’ve spent most of my life thus far in a hell of a hurry. And boy have I screwed up a bunch of things along the way as a result. I’m still setting right any number of those messes. But I’m also, slowly but surely, putting to use the lessons learned, doing things better and smarter and wiser than I would have in my brasher youth.

A third of a century down, and, on balance, I feel pretty great about where I am. I couldn’t be happier with Jess and Gemelli, with my family and friends, with Outlier and CrossFit NYC, with my life here in New York.

At this rate, in just another third of a century, I should be really cooking. Which, I’m starting to think, sounds about right.