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When you were six years old and running around on the playground, did you ever think you'd worry about interest rates? When you were in middle school passing notes with friends, did you think health care premiums would one day be a concern? Even as late as college, did you ever think you'd even know what a mortgage-backed security was?

Growing up isn't easy. If you're like me, you've been fighting it every step of the way. It seems like one day you're having a party with your friends, not a care in the world, and the next day you're crunching numbers on a calculator to see if refinancing your home makes sense.

The transition from mid-to-late-twenties to early-thirties can be a rough one. At thirty, everything seems to get real - real fast. Somewhere between twenty-eight and thirty-two I managed to acquire a mortgage and a wife. (Though very happily, in both cases.) Gone were the carefree days of living like I was still in college.

And suddenly the conversation around me seemed to changed. Subjects like punk music and indie films were being trumped by talk of politics and 401(k) plans. But what struck me as scary was not so much that the conversation had changed, it was that I was actually enjoying the discussion of these new subjects. I found myself asking, "Wait, you have a Roth IRA instead of a 401(k)? How does that work?" I genuinely wanted to know! Terrifying.

So the last few years has been a battle to keep things in perspective. Life became more complicated, but I was looking for ways to uncomplicated everything. People around me were having babies and buying nice cars and wearing suits every day. I was still wearing tattered jeans and sneakers.

Then I realized that people are who they are at the core of their being. Those kids who were always serious and conscientious and focused will have little trouble transitioning to adulthood. They are comfortable in suits and ties.

The others, like me, belong in jeans and sneakers. We still have a hard time passing a swing set without stopping. We can spend hours in a toy store. And I think that's alright. Your age is how old you feel. Growing up doesn't mean acting any different or "acting your age." It just means I have to take care of a few responsibilities before heading out to ball park. I can handle that.

Learn more about this author, Sean Curtis.
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