Hello everyone.  Before we begin, let me explain a few things about myself.

I am 21 years old, technically a college drop out, with a fairly decent job and hopes of joining the fire department.  I manage my own money, usually pretty well.  I have a credit card purely for building my credit.  I still live at home, true, but I RUN that place at least 4 days of the week, with my family's work and school schedules, and around my own.  This fall, if the fire department doesn't pan out, I plan on going back to school with money I am both saving up and will be earning with my current job, which will, luckily, allow me to make my own schedule for school.  I drink alcohol, but not on a regular basis, and never to excess. I don't do drugs. I would say my only vice is really being overly involved with the Internet, and a strange addiction to LEGO Collectible Minifigures.  I am responsible, and on the whole, trustworthy.

Now, having voiced all of this, how many would say the person described above is "immature"?  

Recently, I was told that I was immature and needed to grow up because I deigned to not go out and get plastered with a fellow friend, who, until recently, I was planning on moving in with.  This person can barely pay their rent, even working two jobs, because they are notoriously bad at managing their money, and have bounced several checks in the last few months, resulting in one or two late rent payments, which were kind of ignored as their landlord was one of their roommate's mother.  A person who gets absurdly drunk most nights of the week, because they are "an adult, and [they] can." A person who dates sometimes four people at once all the while whining that their ex won't take them back (after they cheated on said ex).

Now, riddle me this: Is having my own guidelines on how to live my own life, even it they seem more sheltered than those of the people around me, a sign of immaturity? Last night I went out with two friends I hadn't seen in two years (though we had texted back and forth periodically).  One of them, though nearly 22 years old, also still lived with her parents as she and I are in somewhat similar situations.  She called her parents when we got to the movie theatre, simply because she knew that they wanted to make sure she was safe.  Never once did I think, "Dear God, what a CHILD she is! How immature." She cares about what her parents, her immediate household, feels and thinks.  This is not immaturity.

It was a few weeks ago that I was told by the first friend I described that I was 21 "and needed to act like a fucking adult, and be more mature" when I told them I couldn't just go and drink with them because I had work in the morning, and my brother relied on me for a ride to school, but that conversation has stuck with me.  I have been mulling it around in my mind, over and over, and I see no other conclusion that I am the more mature of the two of us.

So, what do you think?