I see people say things like, “I was still just a dumb kid at 25” and such.

Do people really believe that? Is that really true? I can’t imagine that. I’ve felt and acted like an adult since I was 10 or 11 years old.

I guess I was just forced into it by circumstances, and natural proclivities. I didn’t in a lot of ways have any other choice. I was precocious by nature. I had no interest in the childhood world my peers inhabited.

People do seem to mature at radically different rates – my mother was more childish than me for her entire life that I knew her – but it seems self-belittling to speak of one’s self in that way.

One of the main reasons I got into trouble with adults from about 10 years old onward is because I insisted on interacting with them at or above their level and they punished me severely for it.

I never stopped, though, and am very glad I did not.