Don't Get Frozen In Time...
The Turning Feral Journal - Day 35
Day 35: When I was a kid I always wondered what it would be like to be an adult. To choose my own path, wake up when I wanted to, and to be ‘wise.’ But as I began to age, I realized that being an adult has a huge spectrum of choices to be made that dictate whether or not someone reaches the level of ‘sage’ that we, as kids, believe all adults to posses. In fact, it’s been quite disappointing to realize that many of the adults I blindly trusted as a child never actually grew up themselves.
You see, I have a theory on emotional maturity. It’s that if people have a traumatic or even a mundane life-altering event they are presented with a choice. They can either stay at that emotional age for the rest of their lives, or they can make a conscious effort to continue to learn and grow. Let me give a few examples to illustrate this point.
Let’s take ‘Sally,’ she’s a bright twenty-three year old college graduate who is about to get married to a partner who can provide for her and her future families every need. She now has a choice, one is to take this new role and become complacent in her growth and stay at the emotional age of a 23 year old forever, or she can leverage these new resources to grow and continue on the maturity plane. Of course, the path Sally chooses has other factors which may affect it, which could be out of her control (e.g. supportive partner, dreams, ambition, capability, etc.), but the point remains.
Another example is Tom. He was the promising high school athlete who went to college on a full ride only to get injured his freshman year and lose his scholarship. Instead of pivoting after losing out on his life dream to be a professional athlete, Tom chose to stay at that emotional age forever. Now he’s forty-three years old, un-happily married, overweight, and continues to act and make decisions like a twenty-one year old college freshman.
Dramatic examples? Yes. But, the older I get and the more interactions I have with those senior to me has made it clear that maturity growth is not linear and doesn’t perfectly correlate with someone's age. In fact, I would argue that the majority of people you interact with on a daily basis are stuck at a maturity age younger than their actual time on earth.
The good news, though? Once you start to recognize this in others, you can start to reflect on your own maturity age. Seeing this mismatch over and over again has given me renewed purpose to always make sure that my own maturity age is the same or higher than my actual age - this is part of the ‘why’ behind my self sustainability journey and is the root behind the moniker ‘let me die learning.’
Daily Prompt: Can you think of friends or family members who are stuck at a maturity age much younger than their real age? Can you think of an inverse example of someone who is mature beyond their years? Which of those examples would you like to replicate? Lastly, what do you believe your maturity age to be compared to your real age? If there is a gap, how can you begin to close it?:
Motivational Passage:
“I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you find that you’re not, I hope you find the strength to start all over again.”
-Eric Roth (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Rewilding Action: If you are interested in eventually butchering your own game animals, I highly recommend visiting a local butcher. No, not the butcher at your local grocery store, but a speciality shop that focuses on cattle and wild game animals. These shops only do meat and are often full of some of the nicest folks you could imagine. Swing by and pick up some steaks and ask them about the different cuts of meat. You will likely get an ear full about the different types of muscle structure and learn where the NY strip, tri-tip, or brisket actually get cut from. Heck, some of these shops even offer open-to-the-public courses where you can learn to process an animal with their guidance – which is the absolute best coursework before starting a hunting journey of your own!