The imperfection ofmaturity

Julia Fusco
2/20/09
English
The Imperfections of Maturity

“To be mature is to accept imperfections.” (This saying came from a fortune cookie I ate two weeks ago. This advice is insightful.) Imperfections happen every day, all the time and it is wise for this means people to learn from these mistakes. Multiple lessons make a person mature. There are numerous kinds of maturity. I’ve acquired various types of maturity over my short life.
A touching example of how I matured was at the hospital when I was there with my aunt who was about to give birth. Something went amiss, a moment of imperfection in a perfect birth. There was confusion with the type of anesthesia being used. Everyone freaked out and got uptight; tears were shed. I thought there was going to be a flood of tears but it ended as quickly as it started. I knew I would be there for my aunt’s well being no matter. We were flooded with emotions when baby Cole was born. Receiving emotional maturity from an infant was a memorable experience.
Intellectual maturity can come from imperfections too. Like most people, I became more intellectually mature when transitioning from middle school to high school. When someone has a favorite teacher that they love it can seem impossible to say goodbye. Knowing them for ten years and then just like that goodbye, adios, sayonara. Graduation was a nostalgic day. Knowing it was time to leave, I didn’t want to go. On the other hand, I wanted to bolt out the door away from the people I had been with for ten long up and down years. Having to navigate thorough the city to get to my new high school was challenging. I didn’t know which street was which. Trying to get to the train on a different route, wondering where I was seemed unnerving. Now doing this on my own is a piece of cake. Many books talk about coming of age and goodbyes. In Marigolds, Lizabeth had to say goodbye to her childhood. She was becoming an adolescent. Lizabeth’s father also had to say goodbye to being the one who brought home the money; the one the family looks up to. Lowering a persons self esteem is a huge imperfection to their image.
Another type of maturity is social and to students this means their popularity or social well being. People have imperfections too when they treat others unfairly. Dealing with exclusion and cliques had me distraught. Middle school was the time I was targeted, and I was the bull’s eye. “Guys guess what” Hey guys, you guys Heeello.” that was me in 7th and 8th grade. Sometimes taking me three or more tries to try to say my comment, to the point where I gave up. Having just one friend to hang out with was difficult. I became mature from dealing with girls like that. In Marigolds, lizabeth had a similar experienced she was “kicked” out of her group because originally she didn’t want to throw stones at Miss Lottie’s marigolds. Lizabeth seemed as if she was separated from the younger kids. They were still too young to understand the troubles going on around them.
Bravery was the third way I matured. One exhilarating experience was traveling to Costa Rica, except when our teacher instructed us to go on the sky trek. Petrified was one of the few emotions to describe how I felt being hundreds of feet up in the air, clutching the rope taking baby steps inching along. Classmates of mine skipped across the rope, Amazed I actually made it across the whole sky trek. Unexpectedly, now I realize facing a person’s fears makes a person more adult like.
In conclusion, emotional events can make an individual more grown up. So can realizations, saying goodbye to someone very meaningful or a persons child hood and all the memories and nor wanting to say good-bye. All these events can start with an imperfection.