Unsplash | Tim Mossholder

15 People Share What They Learned 'Embarrassingly' Late

There are a lot of things that we learn in life that seem to be "common knowledge," but sometimes, we miss the mark for quite some time. Things that are relatively normalized in society, well, sometimes it takes a little bit longer for us to learn. There are tons of people in the world that learn things "embarrassingly late in life," and here they are!

Fashion show outfits are not meant to be worn everyday.

Unsplash | Armen Aydinyan

"That those ridiculous over-the-top dresses exhibited at fashion shows are not intended to ever be worn in real life; they are like concept cars of the fashion world, intended to showcase the designer's creativity and vision," said Unobtanium_Alloy.

The names in classic Disney movies.

spacepunk17 shared that it took her years to realize in The Lady and the Tramp movie, the human's names are Jim Dear and Darling, not because those are their real names, but because that is what Lady hears them call each other.

How to clean a French press.

"My French press. I owned one 9 months before I realized the coffee grounds go UNDER the plunger and not ON TOP of it. I was always so annoyed having to clean the top of the plunger after lowering the coffee into the water," said RollinDeepWithData.

Knowing how to properly read song titles.

Unsplash | Harry Swales

fr0896 said that growing up, they thought "feat." was a popular rapper who was on numerous songs. Turns out, "feat" means that someone else is featured on another rapper's song, it's not an individual rapper. LOL!

How cows produce milk.

Unsplash | Jagoda Kondratiuk

"I realized a few years ago that cows don’t just naturally produce milk, they have to be pregnant/have a calf to produce it. which is embarrassingly late to figure out," shared Reddit user yllastocs, who has now also taught me something today.

Names of popular cities.

Unsplash | Luca Bravo

"When I was younger I had no idea that New York and Newark were two different places. I kept thinking people saying Newark were trying to say New York, but had a speech impediment or accent, or just didn't know how to pronounce it," shared ChickenGoose.

"This little piggy" is rather morbid.

Unsplash | Marek Piwnicki

dramboxf said that they were around 50 years old when they realized the childhood nursery rhyme "This little piggy" is a bit morbid. They finally realized "this little piggy went to market" is not about going to the grocery store to shop.

Montana means "mountains" in Spanish.

Unsplash | Benjamin Voros

"That the state Montana is literally the word ‘mountains’ in Spanish. Didn’t realize until I was physically in Montana, staring up at some mountains, and thought ‘wow! Mountains are so pretty! Montañas… Montanas… montana, oh,'" shared clean_da_erf.

Several does not, in fact, mean seven.

Unsplash | Waldemar Brandt

"Took me 23 years on this earth to figure out that 'several' was not in fact a way to describe seven of something. Every time I heard it/read it, I thought people were always just being oddly specific about the number of something. Got into an argument with my grandfather about it and didn't believe it meant more than a few until I looked it up," said sirbingalo.

Ringing in your ears is not normal.

Unsplash | Mark Paton

"That ringing in the ears is not a normal thing everyone experiences or a superstition that someone is talking about you. I was 30 when I realized that it is tinnitus, and not normal even though I've had it since I was around 13 (too loud music)," said delusionallysane.

How binders work.

Unsplash | Viktor Talashuk

"How ring binders work. I thought you had to take out all the pages to add a new page to the back of the binder, which annoyed me in school because it could take a while having to realign all the pages to fit the holes in the binder," said axolotl_1994.

What "A" for effort meant.

"When you do something wrong but with enthusiasm, and someone says, “A for effort,” I didn’t understand that it meant an 'A' as in school report card grades. It never made sense because in my head, 'E' is for Effort, like 'C' is for Cookie. I finally had someone explain it to me sometime after I turned 30," said Alisaurusrex82.

The "Bar Exam" is for law.

Unsplash | Christin Hume

TheNameless00 said they just found out last year that the "bar exam" is not an exam you need to take in order to own or work at a pub or a bar, but instead an exam that you take in order to become a lawyer.

That troughs in porta potty are not for hand washing.

Unsplash | Julien Maculan

"That the trough in a porta potty is for the guy to pee in. I said to my dad one day, how are you supposed to wash your hands in that sink with no water? He stood there is shocked disbelief as he explained to me that is where YOU are to pee. I was probably around 18 when this happened," said Realitycheck-4u.

Not knowing the holidays.

Unsplash | Pro Church Media

"My wife and I were discussing Thanksgiving plans one year. She said 'Thanksgiving’s on a Thursday this year.' We were both in our early 30’s and had lived in the US all our lives. I laughed my ass off and she had no idea what was so funny," said Guac__is__extra__.

h/t Reddit