It's all in the mind

First of all, I'd like to put it out there that when it comes to African parents, they don't care about the country's legal age, most parents won't let you take decisions or do certain things on your own unless you're getting close to your late twenties or you're just a very stubborn lad who never listens to his parents, and the reason I believe they do that is either because most of them are control freaks, who just find it hard to accept the fact that their kid is now grown, or they just believe that they know better, which sometimes is often true.

_{Photo by Rod Long}

Now in my country, the legal age here is 18 years old, that is the age set by the government, one that I feel is way too young and also not really taken seriously by anyone over here unless you commit a crime. That is to say, the only time I've seen anyone acknowledge that an 18 year old kid is an adult (and was called a man), was in the news when this kid had committed a crime and was being convicted for it.

Like I said, eighteen is way too young, if it were up to me, the age twenty-one is far more preferable because at twenty-one, one can be considered to be an adult, unlike the age eighteen where it feels like that person is just starting life and doesn't even have both of their feets solidly on the ground yet, meaning they can't even take certain decisions for themselves clearly.

Although experience has thought me that maturity and age are not two things that always works hand in hand, you don't have to be an adult or at a certain age to be matured and behaved maturely. I've seen it happen plenty times and I also happen to be a living example of this because I got to realise that the people you hangout with at a young age most times determines how matured your mind and way of thinking gets.

As the third son of four boys, I found myself hanging out with my elder siblings and their friends a lot and although I didn't know it at the time, I was learning from them, knowing what was cool to do and what wasn't, what kids my age would normally do and what the big boys wouldn't. Soon I found myself not thinking like a kid anymore, seeing things differently and just growing up faster than my peers.

I also recently met a young lady who I got attracted to due to her way of reasoning, and how matured it was irrespective of her age. She had told me that she always enjoyed hanging out with guys older than her and just like to listen to them talk because it's in those conversations that she gets to find out certain things that girls like herself do that most guys don't like, so she tries to avoid doing those things in the future.

So if you ask me if maturity has anything to do with a person's age, the answer is no. Hangout with kids then you behave like a kid, hang out with adults...well you know the rest.