Listen up, we’re going to let you in on a little secret: everybody has gaps in their knowledge! No matter how smart or experienced we are, there’s at least one thing that slips through the cracks. You know, that awakening moment or fact that is so painfully obvious, it catches us by surprise and makes us wonder how we managed to breezily move through life without acquiring such basic information.
But the good news is that it’s never too late to learn. Luckily for us, anonymous Redditors are setting out to teach us about these little things and life-changing bits of wisdom to save us from any future embarrassment. In several 'Ask Reddit' threads, thousands of people stepped forward to reveal the common things they realized at a hilariously late age, and they didn’t hold anything back.
We at Bored Panda have gone through the community to gather some of the best responses about obvious things that apparently were not evident enough. Enjoy reading through these illuminating stories and hit upvote on your favorite ones. Keep in mind that this is a shame-free and safe space, so if you have had any blind spots you recently discovered, be sure to let us know about them in the comments. We’d love to hear them!
#21
Oh this question was meant for me.
I was 16 years old when I learned “flooriting” was not a word.
I grew up watching a LOT of SpongeBob and it was my favorite show. In the show, SpongeBob always fails his driving test because he will always “floor it” instead of driving slowly. When I was little I thought that “floorit” was a single word that meant to go fast and always assumed that someone could be “flooriting” or going very fast.
Fast forward to driving school. I’m in the car with the instructor and another student. I’m driving slowly on the highway and someone aggressively passes me. I made some nervous comment like “man, he’s really flooriting!” And the car just gets really quiet for a second. Then the other student in the car goes, “flooriting? What?”
And that’s when I realized. It all crashed down on me at once. FLOOR IT. It was two different words. It meant putting the gas pedal on the floor. I was shook. I kinda gasped and couldn’t even respond because I was overwhelmed.
It’s been 8 years and I still have never had such a strong, sudden realization of anything. And secretly I still kinda use “flooriting” in my head sometimes.
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191points
#22
An old co worker was 21 or 22 when he discovered that Ponies aren't just juvenile horses, but like another thing entirely. He spent an entire day walking up to anyone he could find going "Hey did you know" it was hilarious.
178points
#23
I was like 10 when I found out I'm Indian. From India. Little kid me always thought it meant I was Native American and I told people as much until around third grade when I found out that India is a country.
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170points
#24
It took me 10 years and $20,000 to figure out how credit cards were supposed to be used.
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169points
#25
That narwhals were real. I genuinely thought they were myth until I saw them on a David Attenborough documentary.
Mind. blown.
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167points
#26
I just recently learned that when you buy a stick deodorant, you can remove the little plastic protective cover by just rotating the feed wheel at the bottom. You DON'T need to use your teeth like a fucking animal.
167points
#27
Black people don't have an extra muscle in their leg that makes them better at sports. (I grew up in a very racist small Kansas town.) Was actually taught that by a fifth grade teacher. Found out in college when my ignorance made me look like a bigot.
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166points
#28
At seven years old, I realized that the moon is not the back of the sun.
A few years later, it turns out that no matter how good you are to your cat, it doesn't grow up to be a dog.
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162points
#29
I didn’t know how to write in print until my first year of college. Up to that point, I only learned cursive, and my teachers were so happy that someone willingly used cursive that they just went along with it.
156points
#30
I asked my senior year drama teacher if I could go to the nurse because I just queefed in the bathroom. Learned the hard way that's not same as throwing up.
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152points
#32
The meaning of birthday suit. I was 26 at the time.
144points
#33
the end pieces of a loaf of bread keep the bread fresher, longer, so you should not eat them until the very end of the loaf.
This I learned at 52.
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142points
#34
I was deep into my teens when I realized it’s “make ends meet” instead of “make end’s meat”. I always visualized it as procuring the last bit of food you could in tough times. Wrong!
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131points
#35
That the delete key on the keyboard deletes to the right of the cursor. Backspace deletes to the left and I would always move the cursor to hit backspace instead of just hitting delete.
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129points