Growing up, and even today, I was often referred to as "the mom" of the friend group. That I was destined to have been born in an previous generation, and that much of my behavior and temperament was described as being "older and wiser" than for how old I actually was. These were definitely compliments, sure, but I always found it interesting how a simple number was automatically connected to how you should be behaving and acting at a certain point in your life.

While I think most adults would say that they wish their children were better behaved, and teachers wish their students would just grow up quicker, there's definitely both a positive and negative component to being quote unquote, "more mature for your age."

On the pro side, I've found that interacting with other people's parents, teachers, and just older people in general is a very simplistic task; it's almost second nature, if you will. In fact, I almost enjoyed seeing people's parents and chatting with them just as much as I enjoyed hanging out with their child.

I also found that your outlook is generally more optimistic, more realistic, and better goal-oriented than the average person your age. You don't view the world the same, and you certainly don't categorize events like you did when you were younger. Thing's aren't necessarily "good" and "bad," but they are considered to be a learning experience, sometimes a beneficial one, and realistically, more often than not, a hard one. However, when you walk away from every situation like that, even the really difficult ones, you walk away enlightened and calm, instead of bitter and angry.

On a more negative tangent, being more mature than your peers can often cause a bit more conflict than you'd like to admit. Considering a lot of people (especially in college), lay their priorities with irrelevant things, chances are you would much rather do something more beneficial, more intellectually stimulating, or even just something that fits your schema better with what you would define as "fun." You're less impulsive than everyone, less daring, less reckless, and while that's not a bad thing, it's enough to often drive a wedge or create an obstacle between you and a lot of your peers. So therefore you often become that one boring friend, which then leads us to compromise on things we only may slightly want to do to avoid being stigmatized as "lame."

Being more mature for your age can also be a negative feeling when you feel out of place compared to others. You feel like you're generationally trapped, and so many of the people you associate with you find to be bland, annoying, or obnoxious. Your tolerance level for these people as well is at a much lower threshold than most because you've already passed that stage they're going through currently.

When putting things in perspective overall, whether you are or you aren't maturer for your age isn't necessarily an advantage--it's just different. It's a different experience with different takeaways, it's being confident and planning ahead with your future vs. putting those things off until they really matter. It's befriending people who fit how you feel mentally no matter the age gap vs. finding friends just because you have fifth period with them. It's being conscious of your own thoughts and feelings just as much as you are with others, vs. still being a bit more selfish and self-absorbed. There's no advantage over the other, it just shows the uniqueness of an individual, and how our experiences and environments shape us to be the evolving people we are today.