Maturity

A lot of people wants to be matured so bad that they don't even know that maturity has little to do with age and more to do with discipline and the ability to face some things headon rather than trying to avoid it.

About two months ago, a friend of mine at the hostel had said something rude to me on our hostel group chat. Now my first instinct had been to reply him there but I held myself back and decided to not say anything to him because I knew that would only result to a back and forth argument between the both of us and I didn't want that.

Seeing as I wasn't saying anything, other members of the group had quickly come to my defense because they knew that I was right and he was wrong. But you see, one thing about not saying anything when every vein in your body is literally asking you to, is that you end up regretting it and for some few minutes, you might even hate yourself and think you're a weakling for letting someone just walk over you.

I felt all of those things and more and again, I felt the urge to not talk to this particular person anymore. I was certain this was the end of our friendship as I never want anything to do with someone who disrespects me, especially in public.

Now at first, this was the route I was going to take, but then I started to realize that this was me just letting my anger win and also taking the easy route. I called it the easy route because I feel it is very easy to not talk to someone ever again, unlike approaching them to tell them that their actions hurt you,so I did just that.

I waited until the day he walked over to where I and some of our friends were seated and then right in front of all of them, I called him and told him that I found what he did the other day very disrespectful and would appreciate it if such never repeats itself. I said it right in the presence of all of our friends there and I remember all of them just being mute because they had no idea I was going to call him out.

Of course he ended up playing the "he was joking" card and I knew that was probably the best form of an apology I would get from him but I didn't care. I didn't say all of that for an apology, I did all of that to let him and also myself know that I'm bigger than just hiding behind a beef and that instead, I'd rather face the situation headon and get it over with.

To me, that's maturity.

_{Photo by Jacky Zeng}