It was a strange time for me. Between the ages of 17-20 was
   weird. For me, "Puff the Magic Dragon" song would make me choke
   up. I thought childhood was over. I'd go to the playground with
   friends late at night, drinking beer or whatever we were doing,
   and sit on a swing.

   At 17 I wrote a "letter to my future self", and set it for 42
   during one choked up no-sleep night.

   I'm 43 now. I opened it up last year. It was pretty awesome
   getting a letter from the past. I never opened it all the years
   between 17 and 42 either.

   [I did my version of the Back to the Future" thing]

   20 was the weirdest year for me. Everybody's different with this
   stuff. For me, I walked around going, "I'm not a teenager, but
   I'm not 21 so I'm not REALLY an adult so... WHAT AM I?"

   Main lesson learned for me though (and it's only for me, I have
   NO IDEA if it applies to anybody else on the planet) was: Puff
   the Magic Dragon was wrong. It was especially enlightening when
   I found out the author was 19 years old when he wrote it. He was
   wrong. You never have to put your dragons away. Yeah, Jackie
   Paper was a bit of a prick for leaving Puff. He thought he had
   to get all serious and crap. Nope. He was wrong. smile
   emoticonAdulthood is actually kinda easier. I think the hardest
   thing I had to do was stop comparing myself to who I was in high
   school. High school was over, yet I was still using the same
   high school stereotypes on people, and thought the same rules
   applied. Took a few years to shake it off though. I stopped
   comparing my age and my self to that age and that self and
   suddenly, I stopped "feeling old" anymore. Never aged since. But
   I had a few crappy teary-eyed long nights 'til then.