Adulthood -- Feeling childish falls away -- I'm becoming myself

A Civil Campaign by Lois McMasters Bujold p. 203

..."Nothing is more guaranteed to make one start acting like a child than to be treated like one. It's so infuriating. It took me the longest time to figure out how to stop falling into that trap."
"Yes, exactly," said Kareen eagerly. "You understand! So---how did you make them stop?"
"You can't make them---whoever your particular them is---do anything, really," said Ekaterin slowly. "Adulthood isn't an award they'll give you for being a good child. You can waste . . . years, trying to get someone to give that respect to you, as though it were a sort of promotion or raise in pay. If only you do enough, if only you are good enough. No. You have to just . . . take it. Give it to yourself, I suppose. Say, I'm sorry you feel like that, and walk away. But that's hard." . . . .

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I’ve been reading the science fiction series by Lois McMasters Bujold and this quote is so timely. I'm middle-aged, not a younster, but I do feel like I’m growing up now and it’s a most interesting process. It’s not like I’m becoming something else, an adult, it’s like the stuff that made me feel childish is falling away and now I’m becoming myself.