There are a lot of differences between actually being mature and pretending to be mature. For instance, maturity definitely is not putting up with other people and pretending to like them for the sake of whatever benefits come to you through doing it. Instead, actual maturity is coming to terms with the fact that you don't like someone, letting them know this, and then keeping your distance. This way you avoid all the stress and annoyance of having to deal with someone you absolutely hate, and the other person avoids being used and is aware of the things that they may need to change about their personality to become more tolerable. If you calmly tell someone that you don't like them because of the way the behave, they'll most likely want to change the way they behave rather than being a further jerk and yelling at you for not being tolerable of their flaws. I remember back in kindergarten that I did not socialize with anyone that I did not consider a friend or a friend of a friend. I remember nobody except for those who I hung out with, and I never got into a fight with anyone that was in my own grade, though I did fight a lot with bullies from older grades. One time I got detention for ripping a Beyblade at someone because they tipped my stadium which I had been keeping some special broken parts in and I couldn't find the parts afterward. Kids were jerks back then, and it seems that today's world is teaching us to let ourselves get bullied as a part of learning to get along with everyone rather than retaliating and protecting yourself.
Moving along, another difference I've found between maturity and pretend maturity is that those who pretend to be mature try to further themselves in career choices and other man-developed skills and opportunities, whereas when I was in kindergarten, all anyone in my group of friends cared about was getting the most of life. School and schoolwork weren't issues, and all we focused on was hanging out and having fun. We didn't need to fight each other or be better than one another. We knew how to share with each other and in doing this we never did without. If somebody roofed a ball during wallball, everyone as a group went in to the janitor and asked if he could get it down. If one of us wasn't particularly happy with the contents of our lunch, we'd pile together some food for that person and in turn take what the person didn't like for those of us who liked it. We had all we needed through sharing and in turn got things we really wanted because of it. Nowadays if you want something in someone else's lunch or don't have one yourself, people will be as kind as to eat right in front of you and comment on how good what they're eating is.
Yet another example: when I was in kindergarten, people did not give a shit about possessions. I mean, sure, you'd bring something neat to school and everyone would drop their jaws and crowd around you. But you often brought it to share with your classmates though your classmates would respect if it was too precious and delicate to be passing around. And when it came to getting new things, everyone encouraged others about getting new things rather than bragging that they already had it. They'd be all, "I hope you get one for your birthday!", rather than, "Haha, I got a GameCube and you only got a GameBoy." Then there was the fact again that if you didn't get what you wanted, someone who had it would bring it to school or invite you over to try it out. Though back then we would barely even care about the object and would often ditch it in favour of the great outdoors.
Lastly, I remember there was no racism or sexism or anything like that. Back when I was in kindergarten, everybody was accepted in our group no matter what. I had a friend that had a huge obsession with books and would read nonstop. I had a friend that was female and nobody treated her like she didn't belong in a group of guys. I had rich friends and poor friends, strong friends and weak friends, older friends and younger friends, smarter and dumber friends, but nobody was treated differently. Eventually the girl left our group because we were starting to give her less attention because she was into different things, and many of my friends started hanging out with other people during recess that related more specifically to them, whether they got along perfectly or not. This all happened within two years, as our brains gained more and more knowledge from school each day. Back then we would all be excited about getting to see the person in the wheelchair and talk to the caregiver. Nowadays I seem to just get pissed off when a handicapped person is taking longer than everyone else to walk down the hallway, and thus making me 30 seconds later for class.
I think I kinda lost my "mature" and "pretend mature" thing somewhere in there, but you get my drift. People become less mature as the years go by, claiming they are being "more mature" for being able to put so much strain on themselves and putting up with a terrible world, rather than being actually tolerable and keeping up with their "childish" views on sharing, equality, conflict resolution, and all that good stuff. If everyone didn't act all tough and independent, we wouldn't have a need for the things that we would have to be tough and independent for in the first place.
/rant
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