>It's hard to recreate that magic. Doesn't matter how much fun I might be having these days, it'll never compare to those early years.

That's a common theme for people your age.
I went through it in spades.
Here's how one great poet put it:

"It is not now as it hath been of yore;
Turn wheresoe'er I may,By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more."

Unfortunately, that poet never recaptured the glory of his earlier days and died regretting it but many have.
Benjamin Franklin's life is a great example.
Check out his Autobiography or Walter Isaacson's biography.