I am almost 20 years old and I still sleep with a blankie. There... I said it.

Despite a few scoffs from a small number of people, I feel it is perfectly acceptable at this age to sleep with a blankie, or a stuffed animal, or whatever “woobie” is necessary to get those precious hours of sleep in college. I know many others who still have this comfort, or wish they did at my age. For those who have or don’t have a woobie like mine, have you ever thought about what that piece of fabric has gone through?

I’ve had my blankie for almost 20 years now, and it has gone everywhere with me. Every trip I’ve gone on, it’s been in my suitcase. Every time I’ve left the country, it has gone with me too. It even has a special place in my carry-on because I’m too afraid to check it and lose it in the sea of lost airport baggage.

Every time I come home from school, its the first thing I pack, and the first thing I unpack. Every time I sleep in a bed other than my own, blankie is there to remind me of home. My mom even made me a “spare blankie," an exact replica, because she was afraid I would lose the original, or it would disintegrate over the years. But, it just isn’t the same as the original. It isn’t as worn and broken it, it doesn’t smell the same, it doesn’t have the same history intertwined in its fibers.

Imagine how many tears people’s blankies, stuffed animals, and the like have dried, how much warmth they’ve provided, how many adventures they’ve gone on, how much destruction they’ve withstood, how much love they’ve absorbed from owners. Having a woobie like this is a right of passage, some people just like to hold onto them longer. And I don’t think there is anything wrong with that.