It is a curious thing, maturity. You never realize you are immature until someone tells you. But some people never figure it out. No one ever tells them because they tend to interact with people that are just as immature as them!
People unite and build friendships based solely around similarities and smiles. But who are your friends? Would you take a bullet for them? Good friends are good friends no matter what life they live. A friend is someone that you communicate with easily, someone you trust, someone that would never pull you down, and someone you do not easily get annoyed with because of their differing thoughts from your own.
But it is pathetic to think that some people are so desperate for attention that they will congregate with just about anyone that has crossed their path just to be sure people like them. This is what separates the mature from the children. Its your attitude and its the manner in which you handle your problems.
A few standards I've set for myself (in no particular order.) since I have decided to turn the faultiness in my life into something amazing:
1. Do NOT interact or "hang out" with people that pose any kind of threat to you.
2. Believe your gut. Believe your heart. And use these beliefs to find your place in the world.
3. Take it easy. Its simple and straight forward. Just chill.
4. Do not let ANYONE get to you. You have a brain... and its there so that no one else has to do any thinking for you.
5. Chances are, your accusers are wrong about you. To some extent. But like I said before... Chill out. If they are wrong just let them do their thing.
6. Do NOT be defensive unless it threatens your eternal happiness.
7. Try to understand, even if you have the darkest of evil angers swelling inside you.
8. Don't drown your sorrows in anything. I don't just mean drugs and alcohol... I mean anything material on this earth.
9. Be the first to back out. But do it calmly and with a kind note at the end. This will always put you ahead of the game...
10. After completing the above (9) do NOT return for more debating, yelling, arguing, whatever you want to call it. let them come to you.
By following this list, you may be able to eliminate a good portion of the drama from your life if not all of it. Opinions spread like a wildfire... so don't be afraid to voice your side of the story if someone has been entirely misinformed. But some people cannot understand and will not listen to you. So let them go. Filter them out of your life completely.
Being mature is understanding what is most important. Being more mature is putting something or someone else before yourself. Being mature not letting emotions distort what the truth might be. Being mature is moving on. Being mature is not only being happy and content with whatever cards you have been handed or have handed to yourself, but also proclaiming your happiness. Being mature is not letting emotions like hatred, guilt, oppression, stress, and jealousy devour you. Believe in yourself but don't eat your own head off in a fit of rage. Being mature is fighting your own fights, in the right way, at the right time, with the right attitude. Being mature is laughing about your mistakes and never making them again. Being mature is putting the past behind you and looking straight forward.
Living your life to the fullest is what matters. That is not your ticket to party and binge drink until your liver stops working half way through a drinking game... it is an order from me to you to be happy and be all that you can be. If you fail in one place, try again. If you fail again, keep trying. But don't be an idiot and waste your life trying to glue chicken feathers to your arms and try to take off into the clouds. Some things will not happen... no matter how you shove them in the barrel. But when you have finally called it quits... When you have established that what you have set to accomplish is going to drag you through the mud and smuck for the rest of your life, then compensate elsewhere.
To close out I will just say this: There are people that cannot and will not try to understand you or your beliefs or actions. Are you going to walk through lava to try to win someones ear over? Would you take a fist to the jaw just so someone would know what is on your mind? If you are worried about your reputation... you are going to be at a loss if you do either of the above. If someone agitates you or voices their opposition to what you believe or what you do... lay down the facts as you know them and back out. Don't argue any further. This world is too big to settle anywhere at my age. I'm ready to get up, out, and all over as soon as I can. The world is far too big to let one simple minded adolescent stand between you and six and a half billion other people.
-quixotic-