I have a vivid memory of listening to No Doubt’s breakout album, Tragic Kingdom, during my hour-plus commute to one of my first jobs out of college.

I listened to it quite a bit back then. I don’t think I’ve listened to it in its entirety since.

It’s wild to realize that was nearly 19 years ago. More and more often I run into little reminders of exactly how much time has passed since I became an adult.

It used to be that my childhood and adolescence, right up through college, made up the great majority of my life and everything that followed was a new adventure. But now I’ve been out of college for almost as many years, and this second half of my life has gone by so much faster than everything before it.

I guess that’s how it always works. It’s the stuff mid-life crises are made of.