Mature is the most overused word in the English language.

(NOTE: The "words" swag and YOLO are not words in the English language, they're words in the "I'm a complete dumbass that wants to set human evolution 10,000 years back" language.)

For much of my life, people have been throwing around the word "mature" as if it were the most important thing in human existence. Sadly, mature is a word that has been raped to death by the majority of society, and instead of representing actual maturity, a lot of people are trying to attain this faux version of it which really just says "I'm only doing this to look cool to my friends, not because I actually want to grow up and be a good person." Since when did maturity become a race to look cool to your friends, rather than a journey towards self-actualization? Oh, right, that was just me having high expectations for humanity.

This kind of mentality usually follows this format: "I'm more mature than (insert name of person I don't like here), (s)he's (insert personality trait I don't like here), and therefore, (insert name of person I don't like here) is immature, and therefore none of you should be friends with (insert name of person I don't like here)." It's pretty much every reason to look mature in an ad lib format. For example: "I'm more mature than Justin Bieber. She's a shitty pop artist with zero talent, and therefore, Justin Bieber is immature, and therefore none of you should be friends with Justin Bieber."

The logic is hilariously broken here, seeing as gaining the approval of your friends is really not mature at all because you're living up to the standards of somebody else (as opposed to your own standards, which an actual mature person would follow). The last time I did something to gain the approval of my friends was probably when I was in 9th grade and wore Axe cologne. That was a signal for me to stop trying to impress everybody else.

Sadly, kids want to be mature nowadays, yet gain the approval of their friends at the same time. This is a recurring theme in adolescence. You're not mature if you want the approval of your friends; you're sheep. For those who choose to remain kids throughout adulthood (there's quite a few of them) by touting the word "mature" around to impress your friends: you're dumbasses. You can't call someone immature just to try to impress your friends. Wouldn't your real friends like you for who you are, rather than like you for trying to follow your own warped version of "maturity"? Thought so.

That being said, it's difficult to really become "mature". We should stop abusing this word and look for more meaningful ways to evaluate each other as people, and maybe learn some other words in the English language while we're at it.