#ThriftyThursday: I am a 31-year-old man, and these are my pillow cases.

My excursions to Goodwill always offer me a rare, welcomed opportunity to re-connect with my childhood. As I get older, I find myself slowly losing touch with many of the things that brought me so much happiness as a kid.

With growth, often comes added responsibility. The ever evolving docket of obligations that attach themselves to your maturation as an individual have a way of making you forget one very important truth about the human experience: Somewhere inside you, sandwiched between your mortgage and that unrealistic deadline for work that’s been keeping you from sleep, is your younger self, free of the apprehensions and concerns that plague so many of us.

It’s my personal belief, that as we collectively hurtle towards old age, we must find a way to attach our hearts and minds to a younger self in a way that works for us. It’s a constant game of tug of war that will routinely leave you searching for a balance between video games and car insurance.

For me, a significant portion of that balance comes from the endless time capsule that Goodwill provides me, blanketing my apartment in nineties artifacts, and supplying me with a subtle reminder that I’m still capable of experiencing the world with a childlike wonderment.

These early-nineties NBA pillow cases are among those artifacts, and I copped them from the Crestwood Goodwill store for just two dollars a piece. I spent a solid ten minutes, just staring at the matching twin sized bed sheet that accompanied these pillow cases, trying to figure out how I could make it fit my queen sized bed. Alas, part of accepting your role as an adult, is making compromises, which sometimes means leaving the twin sized sheet behind.

Here’s to never really growing up, and to inspiring a search for your younger self in the aisles of your local Goodwill.