You’ll most likely read these and have a few Oprah ‘aha moments’ or be completely mind blown for a couple of seconds. And if so, don’t worry – it happens to the best of us (a few of these flew over my head too.)
The following Ask Redditors shared their responses to the question, “What glaringly obvious thing took you forever to realize?”
Curious of more responses? Find the original thread at the end of the article.
That the “popular” kids in school weren’t all obnoxious, soulless conformists, rather they were just normal people with good social skills. And that having good social skills is a valuable thing.
There were a few bad apples in the A-List crowd, of course, but most of them were decent folks. The reason they didn’t want to be friends with me wasn’t because I was too much of a rebel, a maverick, or whatever. It was because I didn’t have the self-esteem to even give them a chance, and I was probably obviously kind of a mess.
I’m shocked now at how entitled I felt to have everyone’s adoring approval when I was that age, and how resentful I was not to have it. It’s as if I thought that because I read The Stranger on my own I should be made prom queen and class president or something.
zazzlekdazzle
The little piggy going to market isn’t going shopping.
This little piggy went to market, to be sold.
This little piggy stayed home, to mature first.
This little piggy had roast beef kitchen scraps to fatten him up.
This little piggy had none, starved before slaughter.
This little piggy went wee wee wee all the way home, squealing in terror in the ever-so-brief escape from the pursuing hatchet.
SemenSigns & kaihatsusha
That snowflakes are actually itty bitty little things, and not those huge, magnificent works of art the size of people’s heads you see in Christmas cartoons.
I’m from Hawai’i, but I saw snow quite a few times before I moved away for college. Still, it took me until I was 19 or 20 to figure that one out. I was pretty disappointed honestly.
hownow_choplogic
It took me 21 years to realize that when people talk about Michael Myers from the Halloween movie that they aren’t talking about the famous comedic actor Michael Myers.
CalmAmidstChaos
How much of an effect your diet plays on your health. It seems so obvious now that food is literally what makes you up, but it seemed like some phrase people say but never really resonated.
When I was a kid I ate what tasted good and that continued on into my early 20s. I thought I ate pretty healthy because the frozen dinners and takeout had small portions of corn and other vegetables, right? When I got sick and would get medicines that wouldn’t help me and doctors that didn’t have much advice. I thought I was just broken before I even turned 25, and that my life was just going to be a constant battle.
Then I started hearing people like Michael Pollan and Gary Taubes on podcasts and cut out soda, sugar and processed foods on a lark and started cooking things that didn’t come from a box, and it was like a cloud was lifted.
CirqueKid
I had friends with a dog. Dog’s name was Diogee. About 3 years in, I realized suddenly. The dog’s name was not Diogee. It was ‘D.O.G.’ Oh, and I also discovered that I’m an idiot.
2beagles
When I was really little my family used to go to Applebee’s. I remember sometimes when we went, a clown would come out on a tricycle and make balloon animals. Young me was terrified and refused to go to Applebee’s from then on…later my parents told me about a new restaurant called ‘Orange Fly’.
I found out later (in my teens) that Orange Fly was really Applebee’s. My parents just renamed it in our house so we could still eat there.
jackiejormpjomp8
Trivial pursuit is a double entendre.
Obviously it’s a trivia game and you are after trivial knowledge. But to play the game is meaningless in the grand scheme of things. So it’s just another trivial pursuit.
otter111a
Maybe due to being in the U.K, but it took me a LONG time to realize that the map joined at the back (as a globe) and that Russia is America’s neighbour (the Cold War made a lot more sense after that).
ricecakesandtequila
‘Breakfast’ literally means breaking your fast. The fast being while you were asleep. I was 25-years-old when I came to that realization.
The fact that it took me so long to realize this really had me questioning my intelligence.
BODACIOUSBARTHOLOMEW
That “The Beatles” is a pun. I never thought about it, because the Beatles are just the Beatles, they were bigger than the wordplay.
But it’s a pun on “beat”, like music, and beetles. When it dawned on me at age 28 I felt like the biggest idiot.
BananafishGlass
They are called contact lenses because they touch your eye.
foreverstudent
That my mom turned 50 seven months after her parents 50th wedding anniversary.
macromorgan
Eminem (M&M) = Marshal Mathers.
ThisFreaknGuy
I honestly thought the adhesive side of women’s pads went towards the pubes.
I was well into my 30s before I realized.
yoshhash
I thought that Subway (the restaurant) was a new Subway (the train) that the city had installed all at once, without any media involvement…no mention of it in the news or the radio or anywhere.
I finally worked up the nerve to go in and was so shocked when I went in and found out it’s a sandwich shop. I don’t remember when that was, but I was well into adulthood.
floridianreader
It was last week, that I learned what a POTUS and a FLOTUS were. I would see it scrolling through my Facebook feed, and pass it thinking those two words were the new buzzwords, but I finally made the connection between the terms and the pictures of the President and First Lady.
thedoyle19
Percent = per cent, or per one-hundred.
Strange_Happenings
That little gas pump symbol by the gas meter on the dash of cars indicating what side the tank is on.
I think I was in my late thirties when someone told me about it.
Ohsoeasy
That old English surnames came from the professions that they used to do, e.g Taylor being a tailor and Smith being a black smith.
Arkham_Assassin
Curry isn’t a specific spice. Neither is paprika.
I never really though about it, I just assumed they harvested curry seeds or paprika plants and made powders out of them.
BeerSteak
That Scooby and Shaggy were Cannabis smokers. Randomly occurred to me about 2 or 3 years ago.
I’m 27.
Wisdom_Listens
What the little metal tab of a wine-opener is for. I was I think 23, and had been working at a brew-pub for 2 years when my co-worker says, “dude…how do you think the girls open the wine bottles?” I had been brute force yanking them out with just the corkscrew, but I could do it so fast that nobody noticed I was doing it like a idiot meathead.
Igriefedyourmom
Hooters is not an owl restaurant.
As a kid, I once asked my mom if we could go eat at Hooters, and she then got really annoyed. It took me around 10 years to understand why.
OrangePi314
When you tell someone “See you later” and they reply “Not if I see you first!” that they are actually saying that you won’t see them, because as soon as they see you they will avoid you.
LightningEdge756
I didn’t learn this until I read the trivia. In Spaceballs there is President Skroob. That’s Brooks backwards. Shout out to Mel Brooks.
JewisHalloween