You've probably heard some jokes that teenagers make differentiating the physical age from the mental age of their peers, right? It's a kind of basic tirade to belittle your friend in jest. However, did you know that we can actually have a difference between these two ages? Not that mental age can change any bureaucratic aspect of your life, but I guarantee that in practice it can make a lot of difference.
With the advancement of medicine and awareness of the need to adopt a healthy lifestyle, it is not uncommon to see people between 70 and 80 years of age being extremely active. The third age is getting younger in practice. Even with advanced physical age, they are still independent, go out to have fun and do not give up the freedom to make decisions and especially to live alone.
On the other hand, young people are taking longer to mature. We often see people who are over 30 years old still living with their parents and depending on them to pay the basic bills for their survival.
The fact is that physical age seems to be increasingly rejected by society. Obviously, you still need to be 18 or 21 years of age with proof of ID to enjoy some benefits like buying alcohol and driving. However, physical age doesn't seem to matter when we take into account people's relationships, temperament and attitudes. The world has changed and people are more and more on the same path, time seems to be relative and mental age is what really matters.
It is totally possible to be a young man of 70 years old or an elderly man of 20. Maturity comes to our lives to show that we can take ourselves less seriously, that it is healthy to laugh at our mistakes and that there is no fall capable of leaving us on the ground to ever. Youth, on the other hand, can be very strict with themselves and grumpy with minimal and mundane difficulties, which makes a 25-year-old boy constantly grumble like an 80-year-old, or at least the stereotype of an 80-year-old.
Fact is, we can choose the age we really want to be or look like. Our daily choices reveal that our mental age can say much more about ourselves than that number that indicates our date of birth. Having an active, positive life full of dreams and goals can take heavy years off our backs. Even if physical age takes its toll and arrives unceremoniously, choosing how we are going to deal with each year we gain is still the best gift life can give us. Choosing between maturity and wisdom instead of old age and tiredness is your choice.
I guarantee that if the choice is made well, your mental age will always be lower than your physical age. Unless you're someone around the age of 15 who prides themselves on having a higher intelligence than your average age. In that case, the mental age being greater than the physical one is fully released. But either way, it's your choice. It is up to you to make your life, your knowledge and your willpower rule your age. Being aware that the number should only be important in bureaucratic aspects is a great start. Live your life to the best of your ability and enjoy every day you win. White hair can arrive, but for each one of them the ideal is to have many stories to tell.
Written by Roberta Lopes of the Eu Sem Fronteiras Team
