The phrase “Aging is an obligation, maturing is a choice” I believe this is a true phrase and I also think it has a realistic meaning about life. Well, growing older is something that happens naturally with every living being, and growing wise or becoming mature or taking responsibilities is something that depends on our own decisions.
It doesn't matter if we like to age or not because it's going to happen anyway as the time passes. On the other hand we have the choice when it comes to maturity, because we can think, and learn from our experiences.
“Aging is an obligation,” which means when we get older our body will start to change and when we grow more old our face wrinkles will be visible. This process can never be stopped and after aging the living being will die one day.
As we are born we start to age at the exact moment and it will happen to everyone like no one is exceptional. Even if you are rich and powerful or no matter how healthy you are, still it will happen and in this sense, aging really is an “obligation” because it is not a choice.
This is the law of life which no one can try to escape it. We don't have the ability to stop time and say, “I don’t want to age." Each day we are getting one day older or each time or each second, we never stop aging. The process goes on naturally by it's own without any avoidance.
However, when we age it doesn't mean that we also grow mentally and emotionally. Like there will be some adults who are old enough to understand situations but they still act like a child and doesn't know how to be responsible for their actions. This is the moment where the other phrase comes in that “Maturing is a choice.”
Maturity is something that can't be learned by growing up it is supposed to be learned by the way we think, live, learn and respond to life. Maturity is about understanding your own self and understand the point of view of others as well, when you learn to control your emotions, it can be also by learning from past mistakes, and showing kindness and patience. When you are mature you will learn to accept the responsibility which is caused by your own actions and start to treat people with respect, this a a choice which we can do by our own.
So yes, I believe that maturing is a choice. There will be thousand of people who did grow old but they never truly got matured enough. Even if they own the body of an adult but still they will act like a selfish child who doesn't care about others and they carried the immaturity they had as a kid.
Nowadays, you can see the kids at young age are more mature then we were at our time. It's because they learn from others and by facing struggles at early age. These strugglers observes life carefully and they decide to let go of things easily which most adults can't do mentally and emotionally.
Maturity has nothing to do with aging it is something that happens automatically. Mature people in trouble won't be busy in blaming others, they will try to find a solution and if there is not one then they would deal with it in silence and become stronger. Because maturity means to you are gonna have to stay calm and have some patient rather than giving up or complaining and this has to be a personal choice that we make every day.
For example, imagine there are two guys Person A and B who had lost their job. Person A spends his time in complaining and blaming others, at a point he starts to feel hopeless. On the other hand person B feels devasted but he decided to accept his fault and learn new skills, he took responsibility for his actions and moved forward in life. Both Person A and B are adults, but as you view the story you can tell who's more mature. This shows that maturity is not about what happens to us but about how we respond.
Now you have got my point, aging is going to happen automatically which we don't have any control over, but maturity is something that we must choose by our own choice. Some people will grow old without growing smarter, and some people will choose to develop themselves with kindness, wisdom, and self-control as they age. There endless chances and time to mature and there are many opportunities to find yourself. It can be through toxic relationships or challenges in finance or mistakes that we made in the past. Whether we take those chances or not depends on us.
So yes, I completely agree with the phrase “Aging is an obligation, maturing is a choice.” we will all grow old one day, but our choices will make us a better person.
The thumbnail is from Canva
