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30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told
CuriositiesFEB 5, 2024

30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told

Greta Jaruševičiūtė
Robertas Lisickis
Mindaugas Balčiauskas
Greta Jaruševičiūtė, Robertas Lisickis and Mindaugas Balčiauskas
77
10
It’s one thing to be intelligent. It’s a whole different can of worms to possess wisdom. And all those times when someone was telling you “you’ll understand when you’re older”—those were moments when they were exercising the latter.
And once folks grew up and understood that all the grown-ups were right—they did understand once they got older—they took to Reddit to share their wisdom and experience in a dedicated thread about the single most “you’ll understand it when you’re older” thing.

#1

30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told
It’s better to be alone than in bad company.
Business_Estate8445, Baurzhan Kadylzhanov / Pexels
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196points

#2

30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told
That sitting outside in a nice weather just doing absolutely nothing is a gift, and that you can really think of nothing.
Satures, Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 / unsplash
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160points

#3

30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told
Not everybody is going to like you, even if you're a good person.
Pink_Dotx, Yan Krukau / Pexels
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145points

The online thread in question was one from r/AskReddit, the second biggest subreddit on the platform. Reddit user NetworkOver7742 approached the community with the question what is the single most “you’ll understand it when you’re older” thing?. The thread quickly gathered a crowd, netting it 9,000 upvotes and 5,300 comments.

#4

30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told
That turning 18 doesn't make you an adult. Neither does graduating, getting your first place, getting married, or having a baby. It's kind of a gradual thing, and then one day you're excited because your favorite variety of potatoes are on sale, and you go "Oh, this is adulthood."
RagingAardvark, Julia Avamotive / Pexels
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140points

#5

30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told
Sex won’t make them love you and a baby won’t make them stay.
Mysterious_Ad9307, Tatiana Syrikova / Pexels
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127points

#6

30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told
How fast time actually passes.
A year feels like an eternity as a kid. As an adult. i'm pretty sure I just blinked and missed my time since I left university
crazicelt, Tran / Pexels
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118points

So, why is age such a big factor in understanding the world?

The short answer is: more time means more experience, and more experience means more smarts (hopefully).

It goes without saying that kids too can be smart, but the amount of things they have experienced throughout their short lives do not stand against the sheer volume of time grownups have spent living on this planet.

#7

30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told
The joy of a good mattress.
Accurate-Tip6410, Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels
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113points

#8

30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told
"Annoying" or "boring" things like listening to older people tell stories or eating dinner with your family become precious memories when they're gone. When we're younger we take so many people in our lives for granted. You never know how much time you're going to get. Be grateful for "boring".
myaccounttorant, cottonbro studio / Pexels
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113points

#9

30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told
Sleep is a gift, not a punishment.
Steven_Dj, Ivan Oboleninov / Pexels
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107points

But there is more to it than just time.

You see, the brain also needs to develop in order to be able to take in and properly process certain information. Studies suggest that older adults have larger vocabularies and greater knowledge of the depth of the meaning in these vocabularies than younger adults caused by changes in cognition in the brain.

#10

30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told
From Time by Pink Floyd
And then one day you find
Ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run
You missed the starting gun
And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun
But it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way
But you're older
Shorter of breath, and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter
Never seem to find the time
I heard this in the 80”s and never thought anything of it. After cancer and a heart attack it hits hard
Treasure the little things. Love where you can
Fistandantalus, Asad Photo Maldives / Pexels
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107points

#11

How awesome staying home can be if your home is comfortable and safe.
LifeOutLoud107
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104points

#12

30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told
How dumb you actually are as a teenager and well into your twenties.
We all thought we knew better, didn't we? Some of us still do, but most of us have matured enough to realize that aside from maybe one or two topics, we know exactly two things: "Jack" and "S**t", and Jack left town.
CobblinD, cottonbro studio / Pexels
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101points

And it doesn’t stop there as the older you get, the more your brain changes—certain parts of the brain shrink, the neurons in some parts become less effective, blood flow may decrease, and inflammation can become more frequent. Unfortunately, all of these aren’t all that good of a change, but that doesn’t stop folks from learning new things, nor does it diminish their aptitude for it.

#13

How much of a waste of time and mental energy it is to be very concerned with your looks. Especially as a woman. There's a reason most makeup/fashion etc social media gals are in their 20s ... older women have stopped giving a s**t. Doesn't mean we've given up on our appearance, we've just realized we are naturally hot anyway and devoted our attention to other things that enrich our lives.
cactuswren01
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92points

#14

30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told
How your body really does decline even if you do everything right (work out, maintain a good weight, good sleep, food, etc). When you're young you can't imagine not having the strength or energy to do anything you want. Then you get much older and your body can just give out on you.
OriginalState2988, Marcus Aurelius / Pexels
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88points

#15

Sometimes, you don't get closure, either as the victim of wrongdoing, or what I'm really talking about, as the perpetrator.
Let's say you did someone badly, and you've really, honestly had a change of heart and mind, and you want to make amends.
If they don't want to hear from you, and don't want to forgive you, you're out of luck. I know you want to put it to rest. But you don't get to force your "sorry" on someone who may still be traumatized by your prior actions. They don't owe you that opportunity for atonement. And insisting on them forgiving you, or even talking to you, is forcing them to relive the trauma from the first time, and re-traumatizing them.
It doesn't matter that your intentions are pure. They have a right to be left alone.
If this happens to you, as the perpetrator, the only step left to you is to live with your guilt. How you go about that is up to you, as long as you continue a life of not hurting others. Get comfortable with that guilt, because no one owes you closure.
ThatWeirdTexan
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86points

Another study suggests that kids see words and faces differently from adults. TL;DR: the center of the brain that processes these is in a slightly different place and the different sides of the brain process information at a different pace. Again, another indicator that the brain needs to develop in order to reach a certain milestone of understanding.

#16

30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told
How rare real friends you can count on.
ScottGwarrior, Helena Lopes / Pexels
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84points

#17

30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told
"We got food at home."
We sure as hell do and it cost me 10x less than any fast food place my kids point out every day.
nono77taco, Sarah Chai / Pexels
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83points

#18

30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told
How limited your own perspective is. It's something you can really only learn with age, no amount of explaining will help a kid understand how biased they are towards their own lived experience.
Notmiefault, Monstera Production / Pexels
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72points

Yet another study showed that kids have trouble understanding what people say sometimes for a number of reasons. This might be caused by trouble with focus, working memory or processing sounds and words in general. However, since the brain works on a practice makes perfect basis, working on it might likely help develop the skills needed. Again, it’s all about putting time and effort into it.

#19

30 People Divulge The Most Spot-On ‘You’ll Understand When You’re Older’ Lessons They Were Told
The importance of good posture and stretching.
jurassicbond, Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels
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65points

#20

Comfort trumps all. Good warm socks and very comfortable shoes. Brands be damned.
KeepGoing655
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62points
77
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