What is “maturity”? Personally, I’m not sure I have the answer, and anyway it’s the kind of thing that everyone has their own definition. But basically, a mature person is supposed to be a thoughtful and responsible person. Yeah, it’s still a bit vague. Anyway, we tend to take certain things for signs of maturity, signs that we are real adults, but we fail. It’s not because we tick these boxes that we are necessarily a real adult.
1. Being old
You can have 50 broomsticks and still be a huge kid, a big fat macho or a redneck who swears only by big cars. Look, your uncle who has just slapped your aunt’s buttocks in the middle of a family meal, accompanying this gesture with a fat laugh, do you find him mature?
2. Being married
Anyone of legal age can marry, and anyone can be an irresponsible husband or wife. It’s not the fact of passing in front of a mayor that will change anything about what people have in mind. We like them, the mayors, huh, but they don’t have any superpowers.
3. Have kids
If all the parents were mature, social services would certainly have a lot less to do. And, even without going that far, a lot of parents are immature, which will not change until the authorization to plant its little seed is subjected to any preliminary test.
4. Believing that those younger than you are wrong
The proof of maturity is precisely to be able to accept that the youngest sometimes (often) have better ideas than us. Of course, if it’s little Timéo who affirms that “eating sand is delicious”here we can consider that he is wrong, but it seems rather obvious.
5. Not liking “kid stuff”
Those who think that being mature means having given up on video games, cartoons and other fun stuff are completely wrong. Being an adult means that you have to regularly make room for serious things, not that you only have to do serious things.
6. Despise those who make jokes
Kind of belittling someone who is having fun to show that we are more serious than him. It is sure that by doing this we see immediately which of the two is more intelligent than the other. Spoiler: it’s not the one that belittles.
7. Work 60 hours a week
So, being exploited without even being aware of it – or worse, being proud of it – is it a sign of maturity? Ben lazy to be mature then.
8. Have a great career
Stupid bosses, stupid doctors or stupid magistrates, they run the streets. In the figurative sense of course. They don’t necessarily run in the street. Unless they’re running. In short, let’s not worry about it.
9. Having a beard/breasts
Intellectual maturity does not go through physical signs of puberty, otherwise we would all be mature from the age of 12-16, and it would be known. Sorry if you have just had your first kiki hair: you still have a long way to go (no stress, you have time).
10. Prefer coffee to hot chocolate
Coffee is no more a sign of intellectual maturity than hot chocolate. If more adults drink coffee, it is because they are tired and because they no longer digest milk. And not because the coffee would validate what they would potentially have in the carafe.
11. Love red wine
Same story as for coffee: knowing how to distinguish a grand cru from a piquette does not make you an accomplished adult. It would be too easy otherwise.
12. Use “mature” language
It’s not because you let go of “notwithstanding”, “expectation” and “dithyrambic” every three sentences that you will develop judicious and adult reasoning. You can very well have swallowed a dictionary and be completely immature.
13. Repay a loan
It just means you owe someone money because you borrowed money to buy something expensive. We all end up going through it, even when we’re a little dumb.
14. Saying it was better before
Your own “before” was the “after” of people older than you. Maybe in their eyes, he was zero too, your “before”. Anyway it was not better before, it was just different.
15. Always want to act “like an adult”
In the end, wouldn’t we give a damn about the steaks of these stories of maturity? Wouldn’t it be better to talk about something else? Were we not more cool when we played Pokemon on Gameboy without asking questions? Yeah maybe I’m still a little immature.