Many of my friends and I seem to be in this weird stage in lives where our ability to be mature is constantly at odds with our desire to be completely irresponsible. To give an example of this, I often have a strong compulsion to stay up for the entire night playing video games while disregarding my responsibilities for the next day. I could make the mature choice and get some good rest, or I could make the immature choice and simply spend the night amusing myself. I used to believe that there would come a day when the mature choice would be easy to make, but I was wrong.
I am a college freshman, and the vast majority of my mental space is reserved solely for thinking about music, video games, and other frivolous things. I have responsibilities, but my natural inclination is to avoid and shrug them off as much as I possibly can. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with being responsible, but my brain is far more interested in things that bring me instant gratification. Clearly, I have yet to become a mature person. However, as I’ve pondered through this idea of becoming “mature,” I've come to the conclusion that maturity is a lie.
By this I simply mean that there is no moment in time when you start to feel like an adult. Maturity is a lie because it is not a state of mind that you can simply slip into. There is no magical stage in life when you will want to do all of your work and not slack off. You will never want to make the mature choices, because immaturity always looks more appealing. This is exactly why students complain about their schoolwork, and adults complain about their jobs. We want to choose the things that bring us pleasure while requiring as little effort from us as possible.
If you are waiting for the moment when you become an adult who makes only the most efficient choices, you will be sorely disappointed. You can dress up in a suit and a tie and go to a job but still feel like a child inside. Life tends to get even more complicated with age, and this means that the desire to regress back to your immaturity can grow even more tempting. If you treat "maturity" like some magical concept that simply happens, you'll soon find that magic isn't real.
Instead, maturity is a choice. You choose to be mature when you go to school or to work. You choose to be mature when you study for your finals and do your homework instead of simply pretending that they don't exist. People make the mature choices every day. However, there is no point in your life where the choice is going to be easy, or where it will be the thing you want to do the most.
While it may be true you may get better at making the smarter and more responsible choices as you get older, this only comes through an immense amount of trial and error. It’s incredibly easy to rationalize why it might be a bad idea to pull another all-nighter playing video games, but you only truly learn just how bad the consequences can be when you do it for yourself.
In conclusion, the only way to fight our internal immaturity may be to force ourselves to make the smart choices. It might start with doing that homework or work project that you’ve been putting off, or finally deciding to clean up your house.
Whatever it may be, you should start today. It won’t get any easier tomorrow.
