Discovering Late in Life: People Share Lessons Learned Embarrassingly Late

As long as they’re innocent in nature, misunderstandings and misheard phrases that we believe for years can add a whole lot of humor to life. For example, my former stepbrother once misheard Lenny Kravitz’s cover song playing on a road trip and belted out, “A married woman, stay away from me!” from the backseat. (That’s definitely not the correct lyric, but it does make for a fair interpretation!)

With this concept in mind, we recently inquired with our audience about things they used to believe until very recently. Let’s explore some of their responses below.

“About a year ago, I came across a post discussing ‘icks’ and realized that I was unknowingly committing an ‘ick’: I now understand that the ‘l’ in ‘salmon’ is silent. Phew!” ― Dotun Akande, a visual artist and storyteller

“That a pony is a miniature horse.” ― Carrie R.

Ponies are not young horses.

“The distinction between cicadas and tinnitus, and the fact that other people can’t hear tinnitus.” ― Dawn M.

“The realization that I don’t need to press ‘shift’ before and after capitalizing a letter on a standard keyboard.” ― Haley H.

“The importance of shaving your bikini line in the direction of hair growth, not against it, to avoid days of unbearable itching. I was 56.” ― Anonymous, a writer

“Mine was the discovery that ‘The Beatles’ is a play on words. They create music, so they ‘beat’ – that’s why it’s spelled that way! I had no clue until one day it clicked, ‘OHHHHHhhhh.’ It’s not the most brilliant pun, so I guess I wasn’t missing out on much.” ― Ryan North, a comic creator

The Beatles have a clever name.

“Learning how to pronounce ‘gyro.’ I was 39 and took my team out for dinner at a conference, and everyone was ordering it, but I couldn’t find it on the menu.” ― Kim P.

“The realization that I need to remove my tampon before urinating.” ― Hanna N.

“The Guinness World Records are located in Dublin.” ― Jennifer A.

“Growing up reading Archie comics, I thought ‘Reggie’ was short for ‘reggae’ with an ‘ie’ at the end. It wasn’t until discussing childhood memories with friends that I discovered it’s actually short for Reginald and rhymes with ‘veggie.’ I felt deceived!” ― Jennifer R.

“I recently discovered that spicy tuna is not a naturally occurring tuna.” ― Anonymous, a comedian

Spicy tuna isn’t born spicy.

“The revelation that underwear goes under, not over, pantyhose. I thought that’s how you kept them in place. I was 40!” ― Shelley M.

“Yesterday, I finally understood the joke about the chicken crossing the road. Apparently, ‘the other side’ refers to death because it got run over by a car. I took it literally.” ― Malefyt M.

“That ‘POW’ stands for ‘prisoners of war’ and ‘MIA’ for ‘missing in action.’ I used to read it as ‘pow Mia!’ like a name.” ― Betsy E.

“I recently learned the actual location of Alaska.” ― Fawnya Y.

“I was in my thirties when I realized that the ‘Santa’ in ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus’ was actually the dad. And I’m a romance writer!” ― Anonymous, a romance writer and educator

“Anime is not just about cartoon animals!” ― Christina V.

“Tapioca pudding is not made of fish eggs. My mom told us that to deter us from eating her pudding. I only found out the truth in my mid-20s.” ― Courtney A.

“You pronounce the ‘b’ in ‘subterfuge.’” ― Erin E.