Here is a quote I lifted from a local indie rag attributed to Joyce Carol Oates regarding growing up and aging. Yes, the two are distinct categories.

Our society is mistaken: the experience of maturing is infinitely more delightful than ‘perpetual youth.’ In youth, one is likely to wish to be experienced….. That is, to be watched, listened to, admired; in maturity one is far more interested in experiencing — in living

No great insights and comparisons to testing about this, but it seems to fit nicely into some as-yet-unknown slot in my brain. Well, almost none. One might read this that the people who are the loudest and most demanding in having their opinions heard (right, wrong or other) are the less ‘mature’ than those who just experience and pass along that experience to others.