Here are 20 amazingly common things people learned at an embarrassingly late age

You're never too old to learn new things. In a world where a majority have to hustle to make a living, we rarely get the time to explore the world that goes beyond our daily routine. Without exploring new things, new places, and meeting new people, our world will always be limited to the bubble we exist in. Sometimes even the most obvious thing can fly straight over our head. It's common for people to assume that even the most insane things are normal, simply because it's widely accepted or it has always been the status quo. There are so many misconceptions we have simply because we thought them to be normal. Sometimes new information could be staring right into our face and we'd still not see it until someone else pointed it out to us. 

One Reddit user asked "What did you learn at an embarrassingly late age?" and people opened up. Some were surprising, some I didn't know myself and was just as embarrassed as them for not knowing. 

Anyway, here are some of the top things that people learned about only late in their life:

1. "Good friends"

That our next-door neighbors were lesbians and not just “good friends”. Lovely people. Didn’t figure it out until I was in college. u/secretbaldspot

2. My dear grandma Abuela.

That Abuela and Abuelo were not my Cuban grandparents' actual names. u/MarzipanJoy-Joys
 

3. Lion King, by Shakespeare

The Lion King is basically Hamlet. That was Monday. I'm 41. u/west_end_squirrel
 

4. For all intensive purposes

It’s “for all intents and purposes” not “for all intensive purposes.” u/charlesturegon
 

5. You can flush toilet paper

That you can flush used toilet paper. Parents taught us as kids to throw away the paper in the trash can for fear of backing up the toilet. Wasn’t until college that I realized my parents were accustomed to that method because they had shitty plumbing where they grew up in Central America. u/Reddit

6. Thought 'hermano' was a name

I thought it was weird when traveling Spanish-speaking countries how many people were named “hermano,” only to find out it means brother, or bro and my friends were just being friendly. I literally thought all these dudes were named hermano. u/Zomystro

7. It's water.. obviously!

That pufferfish don't use air to inflate. u/skewed_perceptions. THEYRE FILLED WITH WATER?!? WHY DID I NEVER REALIZE THAT??? u/iitsumbreon

8. Discovered I'm allergic to bananas

I thought everyone’s mouth got itchy when eating bananas. Almost 40 years old and find out I’m somewhat allergic to them. u/tbr6742
 

9. I needed glasses

At age 21 my friends were hassling me about being dyslexic because I kept getting words mixed up (second year at Uni). Until then, I had just been reading by looking at the shape of words and guessing the words based on the context and wider story. I had been reading this way for years and survived Uni before finding out my prescription was +1.50. The optometrist said it was amazing I hadn’t noticed. When I put the glasses on, everything was in 4K Ultra. I can now see individual letters. u/casualphiliosopher

10. Realized I'm lactose intolerant 

Wasn't until I was 21 when I drank Lactose-Free milk and DIDN'T go sit on a toilet for an hour, that I realized I am lactose intolerant. I thought it was normal to shit constantly after drinking milk. u/xeredge.

My dad told me to drink milk in the morning to ‘cleanse’ my stomach. Apparently, my dad is also lactose intolerant and he didn’t know it. u/Memorikuncikaca

11. Oh.. I get it

That sodas were called soft drinks because they had no alcohol lol. u/zejus_christ
 

12. Realized pet ducks didn't fly south for winter

I learned, when I was 46 years old, that my pet ducks we had as children, did not in fact fly south for the winter. Every winter. My entire family laughed at me when my mom let that little fact slip after she had a few too many glasses of wine. u/Russelthewondercat

13. Whew!

The longest time I always heard of sports teams “Drafting” people. And I am tall, so as a kid I was constantly afraid I’d get drafted for the state basketball team just out of the blue, I thought it worked like a military draft. I learned this wasn’t the case when I was like 10-12. u/Asone2004

14. Gisney world?

I thought the D is Disney was just some random symbol, kinda like a backward G. It took me until like 7th grade to realize it, and even as an adult I still can’t unsee the backward G. u/Death-by-lasagna

15. Wait.. what?!

Ponies are NOT baby horses. u/phrygn

16. Lifehack

That if you wear a white bra, you can see it through a white shirt, but if you wear a nude-colored bra, you can’t. I was 40 when a coworker shared this with me. u/midwesternvalues73

17. Cocaine everywhere

So. Many. People. Do. Cocaine u/Laborreltaionshipsguru

18. From the ground?!

At roughly 37, I learned pineapples grew from the ground. Not from a tree.

19. I've been swallowing paste my whole life

I was 16 when I found out you're meant to spit toothpaste out after brushing your teeth. I had always just swallowed it and thought that's just what you do... Idk how tf I don't have fluoride poisoning. u/Charlie843

20. Only Chuck Norris knows

I thought that Chuck Norris wasn't real for the longest time. u/Cresneta