Young At Heart

Do you ever feel like you can't possibly be as old as you are?

I often have a sort of flashback to high school feeling, where, even though I'm an adult, I feel like I'm not in control of my life.  Like I still have a bunch of people older than me telling me what to do.

Do any of you ever feel that way, or am I just weird? 

I'm not sure what it is.  It could just be normal, but I wonder if that feeling is part of why I write for teens.  In a way, I still kind of feel like one.

For example, the other day I had a friend telling me about problems she was having with her teen.  Now, this person is close to my age, and I'm a parent, too (though my kids aren't teens yet), so I should have sympathized with her.  I did, a little, but I mostly found myself feeling bad for the teen.  Now, I don't know this teen personally, and I don't know the whole story.  But it was weird.

So I wonder, is it just me, or is this normal, or is this what makes us successful at writing for teens/children?  A sort of eternally youthful outlook, or something.

Are you young at heart?