Leonela's essay

"There are two types of ages: mental y physical, which interact in a same person. In many cases, these two maturity variables are not balanced, one can be quite more advanced than the other and vice-versa.

When mental age is lower than physical one, people can either be seen as not mature, kept like children, with a not growing mind, which is not well seen by certain people. Either we can see that as something good, as some people think that keeping your inner child is something healthy and beautiful.

The other way, when physical age is lower than mental age, is not as common as the first one, and so, very well accepted, even praised and adored.

No one is better than the other. Eventhough it's crystal clear that they're different, the good thing with different things is that they complete each other.

One is unchangeable but by time, which alters it second after second, making it run, only stopped when life ends. The other is quite subjective and depends on many factors, unlimited things can affect it. Sometimes it's restricted by nurture or culture, but most of the times it's run by our own thoughts, conscious or unconscious.

The two ages have some relative points, the main one being youth material ignorance and that with old age, physical one can affect mental one's development, with diseases, fortunately more and more understood and cured.

Knowing we're all different, there's no exception, just many combinations, opportunities.

Some people having an advanced IQ or physical abilities can feel themselves superior to other, as they don't relate with usual time lines. Some other can feel retarded when the contrary happen to them, even for the average people, they can feel themselves inferior to the brightest ones.

It's important to know what maturity degree we have physically (with sports abilities) and mentally (with IQ), and accept if if we can not improve it.

Generally, children want to grow, eventhough they're not ashamed for their young age, unlike some adults who're used doing that and want to feel young again, which is more and more possible with medical and technological progresses.

The best, for this subject and many other, is accepting oneself as we are, if we can't change it. And if the problem is mental age, thrive to improve it, without feeling down or craving for it, for while we deal with it, the physical age goes up and time can end without notice.