Navigating through the complexities of life for an individual on the autism spectrum can be challenging. Recognizing the power of maturity is important. It is often better to hold maturity rather than act immaturely towards someone. This is not about winning something by asserting power. Instead, it takes understanding that it is always best to be mature and take the high road.

When we as autistic individuals face triggering situations, we often feel discomfort and uncertainty. As a result, we lose the skills we work the hardest to learn. When we feel we don’t have control or comfort, we lose our ability to stay composed. We cannot work through things as maturely as we can. Even if we know we have what it takes to get through hard situations, we understand being mature is better. Taking the high road is better than going low. We do not want to make a mockery and show those who follow us the improper way to act. It is seeing that there is power in being mature.

I often felt it was better to express my thoughts about how others were feeling. I also thought it was important to share what I believed about them. However, I did not see the whole picture. I was only letting myself believe what I was told. I wasn’t seeing the full reality of a situation. It’s not just about what I was led to believe or what hurts me. It is often better to be mature. In the past, I put down others and made a mockery of myself. Those who greatly valued me saw my immature and childish behavior. I became ashamed and embarrassed when I realized they had a front row seat to the fury I was delivering. I pledged to never do something like that again.

It has been a few years since I did that. It was not a direct path to maturity as I got older. I always remember being at that low point, and that person saw my immature fury. I was lashing out because I felt out of control. That realization made me want to be more mature and learn to control my emotions. I knew people looked up to me as someone who had made it through some pretty rough things. Acting in an immature and childish way was quite unbecoming of the person I wanted to be. I didn’t seem to have control of myself.

I have so much potential to be successful in my life. Part of that is realizing that I have what it takes to be successful. I am mature enough to handle hard things that come my way. I have learned so many things about myself over the past few years. One of the biggest things is that being childish and immature doesn’t make you any better than anyone else. It shows less of who I can really be. I choose to allow myself to see the better person that I can become.