fine whine. at what age should people be expected to gain maturity? sure it's variable for all people and it depends on your environment and your genetic makeup, but there should be an age where maturity is a must. as an elder statesman now -- in the world of young adults -- i feel like maturity should be within striking distance by the age of twenty. anytime i meet anyone who's eighteen or nineteen, i feel like they have a right to be immature still. they are fresh out of high school, fresh into life, they get a few years. but by the magical age of twenty, you should be able to carry yourself as an adult. not all the time but when it counts.



signs of immaturity? i can't really pinpoint this. immaturity is essentially "behaving like a child." using this as a definition, immaturity would be anything that includes excessive whining, complaining, inability to react properly in social situations, inability to handle basic responsibilities (although this is a slightly separate issue). for some reason, part of maturity for me, as it pertains to girls, is linked with giggling. the more they giggle, the more i feel a girl is immature. yes, this is a terrible assumption but hey, what can i do? excessive giggling triggers a middle school flashback for me. by the way, gossiping is not immature. giggling and gossiping can go hand in hand. but giggling for no reason is just atrocious. for guys, immaturity is linked directly to the amount of stupid things a guy will do or say. immaturity is throwing bottles out of a speeding car. immaturity is pantsing children at day care, when you are working for the day care.



immaturity is also an inability to work well with others. or at least, to get along with others. there's a lot of leeway here, for people who are just people averse based on personality or mindset, but if you can't be trusted around others, then you're probably immature. if you can't be trusted to be next to me in public, due to your tendency for doing embarassing things, you're immature. if you like to walk into a room, fart, laugh, and leave, you're immature. ahem. if you make comments like "black people are so loud!" then you're either immature, stupid or racist. probably all the above.



i think it's a problem when guys are subtly encouraged by society to be immature. as a little boy, it's okay to be mischievious and a little out of control. after all, wouldn't you be a little worried if your precocious male heir never got in some trouble? this carries on to into adolescence and adulthood. we brush off the immature acts of males as just "boys being boys." but think about it, if a girl acted the way a guy does at eighteen (oftentimes much older), they would get tossed into ms manners school, like that. snap snap. i would donate money to start a manners school for boys. we need this more than one for girls, don't you think?



drinking is the ultimate excuse to exercise your immaturities. if you act like an idiot while you're drunk, you're showing your true colors as far as i'm concerned. i'm writing you off as a mature person, forever. there's a difference between having fun and being crazy and wild and being stupid. breaking things for no reason? immature. crapping (literal and not) in a foreign country's downtown area just because you can? immature. when i was in china, i watched so many americans get piss drunk and disrespectful just because they could. i wanted to kill them all. i'm not only pro death penalty but i don't really have problems being the one to enforce it. assault weapons are back right? anyway, the drunk people issue is a separate one, so i'll leave it.



anyway, my point is, by the age of twenty, i expect maturity from you. even if it's in a raw unprocessed form. i figure that if you've shown no glimmers of maturity by twenty, you're a lost cause and will be doomed to be one of those middle aged people who act like they're in kindergarten.