What maturity means...

This is MY idea of maturity!

Most people think maturity is about being all calm and serious and what not. They assume that being hyper and talking like a retard is completely immature. Some say that being mature is having a boyfriend, or having great grades in school. (I may be straight A's, but that doesn't make you mature)
They say that if you're really mature, you won't play dolls, or role play in the backyard with a toy lightsaber, shouting at thin air. Then there are those who think climbing trees or building forts or catching bugs or reptiles is for children ages 10 and under. There's also those who believe that maturity is all about getting sick-minded jokes and finding them hilarious.
Some even say that maturity is putting your friends before family. Family is over-rated and you'd rather spend time getting drunk with your friends that having a pizza/movie night with your parents and sibs. Family stinks and parents make life suck. New motto for those entering the world of mock-maturity.
Saying hurtful things to get a laugh out of your peers is wonderful! Complimenting somebody who's an outcast is completely unbelievable! Standing up for an outcast is even worse.
You pretend to care about what's going on in the world when you're around the people who do care, but act like it's a bunch of junk around the people who don't. Your moods shift rapidly and your personality is burried. Yeah, soooo mature!


But truth is, maturity isn't (well, I hope it isn't anyways! ) about all that junk. Being mature is not being afraid to get hyper off of sugar and slushies and acting like a moron every so often! Being mature isn't necessarly always being able to use huge words (although it's fun to confuse people with them!) Being mature isn't necessarly HAVING a boyfriend, it's being able to wait until you find the one you're sure you're supposed to be with and making sure you both respect eachother.
It's about not being ashamed about your grades, but rather simply trying your best at whatever you do. Maturity is having the courage to run around your backyard or the park, toy lightsaber in hand, yelling at air and not caring what people think of it! Climbing trees and building forts and catching bugs are just enjoyable activities that we use to pass time! Certainly not childish nonsense! It's about realizing that sick-minded jokes are actually incredibly stupid and being able to laugh at the good CLEAN jokes.
Maturity is when you can avoid getting drunk, and hanging out with friends who won't try to get you drunk. (Or do numerous other stupid things) It's about keeping friends and family in balance with eachother and spending good quality time with each.
Maturity is the ability to refrain from hurting others to get attention for yourself. It's about not caring what they say behind your back after you stand up for the outcasts and try to befriend them. Sometimes they are outcasts for good reason. Every so often one comes along who is impossible to get along with, and that's totally understandable.
Maturity is choosing weather to care at least slightly about the world around you and realizing that it could hugely impact your life in the future, no matter how far the place is. It's about not hiding the fact that you at leaste slightly care around the people that try their hardest to forget about it.
Why bury your real personality? It'll make you feel out-of-place and used.
Keep true maturity alive!

This is MY idea of maturity!

Soon as I heard this, I thought "Oh, THIS is probably gonna be interesting... "

First, the "fun" stuff.

"roll play" should be "role play."

But truth is, maturity isn't (and if it is, then I don't want to be mature! Where's the fun in that? ) about all that junk.

This () interruption (whatever it's called when you put it in a sentence) was kinda lengthy which made it harder to read and understand.


Okay, now for the rest of it.

I like how your (wild) personality comes out through this piece. It makes it much more interesting to know what YOUR opinion on maturity is because your tone completely emphasizes the kind of personality people typically think ISN'T mature. No clue if that's what you were getting at, but that's what I noticed. There wasn't much of an ending. I think you could expand more too, give it an even more open-minded feel.

Yeah... I have tons more to add to it, but I'm trying to find where to put it all...
I think I'll edit a bit now!

Hi Isha. So I loved your this experiment with Non-Fiction. I totally loved this and i think it would prove helpful for those mature-minded people with no self-respect or operspective.

Maturity is when you can avoid getting drunk, and hanging out with friends who won't try to get you drunk. (Or do numerous other stupid things) It's about keeping friends and family in balance with eachother and spending good quality time with each.

This is so true! I really loved this thought of yours.

Maturity is choosing whether to care at leaste slightly about the world around you and realizing that it could hugely impact your life in the future, no matter how far the place is.

Why bury your real personality? It'll make you feel out-of-place and used.
Keep true maturity alive!

A great ending line and sign off.

Okay, all fixed up! Thanks! I'm glad you liked it

Hello Isha,

To be brutally honest with you, I found the starting paragraph extremely informal. Such as the dual use of "and" in your opening line and the "what not" which displays your whole piece of writing as rather naive and thus I doubt a reader finds it right to take it seriously. Then you say "talking like a retard" which isn't necessarily a phrase everyone takes to. The way it's written though merely makes you, yourself seem immature and yet your argument is that this doesn't make you immature. To me, this means either that your writing is very clever or your very confused about the topic. Whatever the answer is, the start needs work, because otherwise you'll lose readers.

Then in the second paragraph you go on to give a lot of examples, which I can't say I particularly enjoyed as I was being thrown about generalised opinions of whoever this "they" beleives is immature. There's a clear overuse of the word "or" as well, where perhaps a simple comma list would've substituted and organised your writing more appropriately.

Your paragraphs are also realtively short which imply your not spending enough time on the topic. So what I can really only grasp from it is a display of frustrated opinion jumping about from 1 point to another as opposed to a thoroughly thought-through article about your opinion. Thus where the ideas might be engaging, the writing isn't and probably needs some revision.

Hope this helps and keep writing,
Ben

Well, I can't expect everybody to agree. I did spend time on the topics, but they are short. I'm not going to talk on and on and on about one thing before moving to the next. I highly doubt that a two-paged description would be a good thing to read
Plus, maturity is being yourself, which is the whole point. If getting hyper and ripping around your yard isn't what you love to do, then it isn't what you love to do.

Hi there! Winter here, and I think I owe you a little something-something.

So, here it is.

First off, you got me right at the beginning. The way you have expressed yourself honestly like that helped me relate to the rest of your piece. In fact, I can relate rather deeply. I've encountered a lot like those who act so high and mighty, feeling like they're the coolest things on the entire planet, but they're not, and they go making up their own set of rules or something, so much like children. I hate it when they tell me to 'grow up', when in fact, it's them that needs to realize what big mistakes they've been making, what stupid lies they've been believing in. They go along in groups, saying that those who were outcast only outcasts themselves, but in truth, they were the ones outcasting the outcast. Hello with the long o? Do they even know the correct definition of 'outcast'? What oxymorons.

And God, the labeling! It burns. Even though here they don't do it as... erm... directly (we don't have stereotypes), but yeah, you get the point. They judge you before they even get to know you. And they scorn you when they think you act immature? PWN it!


But anyways, I really like the way you have put this... well, the general idea of it. Bless you for posting this, it gave me an indirect reason to rant. No comment on the grammar; it's fine as it is, just a little touch-ups here and there. You can spot the mistakes on your own if you read it again closely. Just a few typographical errors... and the grammar isn't what really matters here, is it?

But I do agree with BenFranks, the informal construction of the piece makes it seem as though you yourself are immature, and in the eyes of a really harsh critic, you would come off as hypocritical... And yes, some points are a bit radical, such as the rip your yard off thing. Being mature is also knowing how to behave and be logical, and although simply being you is a healthy way of self-expression but not a sign of naivete, the idea of ripping off someone else's lawn for the kicks is indeed a bad thing, ask anybody. And it is punishable by the law. And poor little lawn owner.

I know the construction you have used is for easy relation to the readers, but I would actually appreciate even more if it was constructed in a formal but witty way, intelligently put and not simply ranting. Learn to contain your feelings when you write. It is evident that you got carried away.

I hope I have given equal credit to the ups and the downs, seeing that this piece has promise. You've got a vague idea of your topic already, you just have to know it on a more close-ish manner. You do seem to me still a little confused about all this. So meditate about it. Gonedaya, gonedaya, buddha, buddha. XD

...Ooh, that's a lot of smileys. Here's another.

I'll be off for now!

See you around!


~Winter

hahaha!! Thanks!!
I do agree that I did get carried away...but it was hard not to. I think I was probably ranting because I wrote it right after somebody made me really mad about my maturity. (Looong story!!)
I'll attempt to sort of reconstruct it and keep the message when I've got the time and brain power, but I am exhausted right now and wanna read a bit of The Boneman's Daughters before I go to sleep! (Ted Dekker)

Thanks again!