People Are Sharing The Embarrassing Things They Didn’t Realize Until They Were Full Adults, And I’ll Be Laughing Into The Next Millennium
Recently we asked the BuzzFeed Community to share the embarrassing fact they learned *way* too late in life. Here are some of their hilarious responses:
1."Until I was 22, I thought Switzerland was an island. Why? Because they were always neutral, an island of neutrality, if you will."
—Anonymous, 34, New Hampshire
2."It’s 'Hot as Hades' not 'Hot as Haiti.'"
—Anonymous, Arizona
3."I believed marshmallows were a vegetable until I was 27. I genuinely thought they were the insides of cattails, cut and cooked and covered in powdered sugar. I don't think anyone ever told me this, but I somehow made that deduction on my own. I hadn't eaten that many and had never seen the actual inside of the cattails that grew around the MARSHES where I lived, so in my mind, it made sense."
4."Not me, but my sister. She was in her late 40s and insisted that Alaska was an island. Her explanation was that it always appeared off on its own when she saw it on maps, therefore it was an island. She will never live it down!"
—Anonymous, 58 Washington
5."When my best friend and I were in Hawaii together, she said, 'How is Alaska covered in snow when it's so close to Hawaii?' I was so confused and then realized she thought Alaska was an island close to Hawaii because of maps dictating them 'next' to each other. I still don’t let her live that down. She works in education too."
6."For some reason, I had been calling it a 'Burmese' Mountain Dog. It didn’t even cross my mind that such a big furry dog couldn’t be from such a warm tropical climate. One night, a friend of mine asked me to repeat myself when I said Burmese Mountain Dog, and he just laughed and said it was 'Bernese' Mountain Dog."
7."That corned beef is not from cows only fed corn."
—Anonymous, 72, Georgia
8."That BLIND CROSSING is a type of intersection, not a descriptor for a type of crossing for people who are blind. There were no braille signs, nothing to make a signal sound, and no crosswalk. I was 35 or so before I learned it was just a type of intersection."
—Anonymous, 60, California
9."Kansas City is not in Kansas…"
—Anonymous, 56, US
10."I was in my late 20s when I found out that 'Doobie' isn't the last name of a band...and what the definition of doobie actually is. This was in the 1980s."
11."I casually mentioned to my family that it was weird that the sun and the moon were in the sky at the same time. Somehow in my head, I had them rotating like they do on those tacky clocks. My family was, rightfully, stunned and horrified."
12."When I was a 5-year-old boy, a friend at the time told me, 'Girls pee out of their butts; that’s why they sit down.' It wasn’t until I was 20 years old and in a college health class that I understood where the female urethra exits the body. I just had never thought to revisit the assumption formed when I was a little boy. When I told my girlfriend at the time, she was flabbergasted."
13."That Patagonia is a real place on earth. I was always under the impression that it was a made-up place like Atlantis. I'd went to university and was almost 40."
14."Pipe cleaners aren't just things you use for crafts. The clue is obviously in the name, but I was in my 30s before I realized they were for cleaning a tobacco pipe."
15."That the kidney in steak and kidney pie is not kidney beans but actual kidney. I was about 30 when someone educated me on that."
16."I can’t remember when, but it was definitely junior high or older when I realized it’s not called the 'Abdominal' Snowman."
17."I was probably 21 or 22 when I learned that whole milk is only 3% fat. I always thought it was 100, and when I saw reduced as being 2% I thought, Why wouldn't they do 50% or somewhere in the middle?"
18."I learned THIS WEEK that the Washington Commanders are a Washington, DC team, not a Washington State team. I thought that between the Seahawks and the Commanders, Washington State just had all of these amazing teams!"
19."There’s an arrow on the gas gauge in virtually every car that points to the side your gas cap is on."
20."I did not know that pickles were made from cucumbers until I was 24 and in the middle of getting my bachelor's."
21."Not me, but it's hilariously stupid so I have to share. My sister is one of the smartest people I have ever known. Like she has never gotten a B in her entire school life. She's now a doctor of physical therapy who runs her own clinic. This woman, at 31 years old, called the family one day and said, 'Did you guys know it's called fall because leaves fall off the tree?' This woman can tell you the name of every muscle in your body and this is what she comes up with."
Is there a commonly known fact that you learned hilariously way too late in life? Let us know in the comments!
Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
