One of the more unappealing qualities an individual can possess is to display a sense of entitlement.

There’s this peculiar reality about life, being that it doesn’t revolve around you. The world don’t owe you shit. And as a result, events won’t always transpire as you would like. Therefore, the reason you won’t receive an apology is because you aren’t owed one.

Last October, I authored a Signed Sirelle—21 Going On 16—in which I stated, “The most valuable lesson one can learn is that you are your own worst enemy.” Speaking from personal experience, the moment one accepts this realization the better off they will be.

See, life habitually teaches lessons. Listen to them. It’s the reason we have two ears, but only one mouth: to listen twice as much as we speak. And the inability to perform that assignment typically hinders development.

Hindered minds struggle to maintain in an unconfined society. This breeds immaturity, as their struggle, in some way, becomes everyone else’s fault—according to them. They’re always right, and the world be damned. Quite honestly, it’s a period every individual experiences personally—it’s a part of growing up.

Where the issue lies, however, is when one isn’t growing out of it. The world isn’t your cup of tea. Which means it won’t always be your temperature; but a critical element of maturation is learning how to carry on in spite of it.

It was the late entrepreneur Jim Rohn who once said, “Maturity is the ability to reap without apology and not complain when things don’t go well.” Or, for the more adolescent minds, in the words of children’s novelist Katherine Paterson, “I guess real maturity is when you realize you’re not the center of the universe.”