Three dings ring from the loudspeaker. The teacher stops talking. A monotone voice calls a student in your classroom down to the office. Suddenly, the whole class looks up at the student in question and a huge roar of sayings like “ohhhhh” and “you’re in trouble” erupts. That is what I call being immature.

Immaturity is something that can be totally controlled. When you see someone fall, you don’t have to laugh. When someone gets called down to the office, you don’t have to mock them. All you have to do is keep your mouth shut.

I’d like to think I have always been a mature, responsible person. I was the friend in the group that received the title of the “responsible one” and I am totally fine with that. I would rather be a mature teenager than an immature one. But, we should not have immature teenages at all. Sure, being immature when you are in elementary school is fine but it is not OK in middle and high school. It is time to grow up.

I could not wait to go to high school to be in a mature environment. That’s not what I’m in.

In high school, immaturity still remains, in an evolved form . Instead of hooting at people getting called down to the office, students laugh at people who trip in the halls or giggle when a teacher says phrases like “69.”

This election has made me realize that immaturity does not go away. My parents have been together their whole lives—35 years to be exact. But they have their different views. My mother supported Hillary Clinton and my father voted for Donald Trump, so you can imagine the conversations at my dinner table. When discussing politics, all my parents do is bicker and refused to agree. They act like immature 5-year-olds fighting over the last cookie.

I went to see “Fiddler on the Roof” at the war memorial last month with my mom and a crowd of elderly folks. The director of the musical came on the stage to give his opening speech. He said the theatre company was working on finding a new location for the musicals because the stage is being transformed into a movie theater. And all of a sudden the whole crowd of 80-something-year-olds began to shout in anger. I was shocked. I could not believe that a group of people that are old and allegedly mature could act so immature. Nothing is going to get accomplished by booing, and they should know that from their 80+ years of life experience.

People need step back and realize that acting this way accomplishes nothing. All it will do is make someone else feel bad and cause an unnecessary scene. Immaturity is annoying yet semi-cute in elementary school, but it isn’t a redeeming quality, and should be left with the cartoon-themed lunch boxes and kickball games at recess.