Oh, yeah. There's a guy I knew (also an author of hip-hop musicals) who mentioned to me on his thirtieth birthday celebration that he never expected to see thirty, because when he grew up, he never saw any men that age. By then they were all dead or in jail. That resonated a lot with me too, because I never expected to see forty, though for personal rather than social reasons.

Why do you write like you're running out of time?
Write day and night like you're running out of time?

That's why.