Mature is a word I often associate myself with. I feel that in my life I try to handle things as an adult as much as possible, which means handling things respectfully, responsibly, and without mistakes. One of my absolute favorite things to hear is when someone tells me how mature or grown up I am. It’s something I get told a lot, and I am proud of that. I feel that it is my job to be as mature as possible in every situation because it is what people expect of me. When I do make mistakes or the wrong decision, I get really hard on myself about it, but then I remember, I am young.
I was raised to do things on my own since I was a kid and I am so thankful for that. I can do some of the simplest things on my own such as laundry, cook dinner, and clean my room, to the hard things like pay my own bills, take care of a house and make my own doctors’ appointments (which we all know are really nerve wracking). And I am extremely thankful that my parents gave me this knowledge, but when I fail to do some things perfectly, disappointment creeps into my mind. Like if I forget to text my parents where I am, if I don’t study hard enough for a test and get an unsatisfying grade, or if I leave my room looking like a tornado hit it for a week, these things that all normal teenagers do, hit me with a personal disappointment that I cannot shake. And when I do these things I always hear “You’re too mature to let that happen” or “What happened to being an ‘adult’?” And all I want to say is I am still a kid! Yes, I might be more mature than most, but I am still young and I will still make mistakes.
I pride myself on handling most friend and relationship situations with respect and maturity, but sometimes I am wrong, and that’s OK! I mess up and I say the wrong thing, I make selfish choices and plenty of mistakes too. I have lost friends due to my teenage stubbornness and lost relationships due to my own selfish desires. And I was always so hard on myself because of it, but now I am done. I am young, I am bound to mess up. We all do. If I spent my whole adolescent years being an adult and doing everything perfect, I would experience nothing and be miserable.
So here is some advice to those of you who are the expected adults like myself: it is okay to mess up, it is okay to fail a test, regret a breakup, or lash out to a friend. You are young and you have so much to learn. You have the rest of your life to mess up and worry about it then. Please still handle things with the maturity that you do, but don’t be so hard on yourself if once in a while you actually act your age.
And for those of you who are sometimes guilty of being hard on us mature young adults: first off, thank you for seeing us in such a positive light. But please, give us a break. All we want to do is make everyone proud of us and for you all to continue seeing us in this light. But listen, we will mess up. Let us. Let us say the wrong things, have a messy room, and stay out past curfew. Let us fail, get hurt by our own choices, and fall on our asses, but be there to help us get back up.
I am proud of being this mature person, ahead of my age, but I am also proud to sometimes act my age, you should be too.
