It's safe to say that something obvious to one person might not be obvious to another.
Some people have a different way of life or a different view of the world.
it's a little less forgivable if someone doesn't know, or worse, accept, a concrete fact (no, the earth is NOT flat...)
Even so, some people go through most of their lives blissfully unaware of things that were more or less common knowledge to others.
In fact, there's probably no one on earth who hasn't been late to this particular party at least once in their life.
Redditor Ratich2 was eager to hear the obvious things people realized sometimes embarrassingly late in their life, leading them to ask:
"What’s something obvious for everyone, but you only just realized?"
The Gift That Keeps On Giving
"An old archaeologist moved in next door when I was about 6, and he asked me to go look on his driveway to help find fossils that he might dropped while moving in."
"I found two, that I still have to this very day (he told me to keep them) I was an adult before I realized he placed them there for me to find."
"He was a very nice old professor.'
'Not not mention how cool I became in the eyes of my friends for owning fossils."- henriktornberg
Didn't See That One Coming
"This was a long time ago but the first time I got my eyes checked I was in first or second grade or something."
"The optometrist told my mom I'm almost completely blind in one eye."
"She looks at me and asks why I wouldn't say anything?"
"I said I thought everyone only had one working eye."- arifern_
She Goes By Many Names
"I didn’t know my mom had a name until in first grade the teacher asked us what our mothers’ name was, everyone answered but me."
"I never realized my mom had a name, and I questioned my entire existence!"
"I went to her straight after school she was cooking in the kitchen I asked her mama what’s your name?"
"She smiled, stopped cooking and came down to my height, and told me her name."
"It was a sweet memory... but man, I felt shame that I didn’t know that sooner."- EnvironmentalPiece29
Season 3 Mom GIF by Nanalan'Giphy
Finally Seeing The Light
"I was 30 before I found out that the lights doing that stretchy thing at night wasn't normal."
"I have astigmatism."- StatusUnknown_
Lost In Translation
"So I'm not a native speaker which might make this somewhat excusable."
"But for the longest time, I thought sitcoms were named that because the main characters spend most of their time sitting (in a living room, in a bar, ...)"- AfRotaker
Who Isn't Tempted By Cookies...
"That you can click ‘don’t accept any cookies’ and websites work just fine."
"I always thought that would also disable essential cookies so would either accept all or go through the motions of only allowing essential ones.."- mitchw87
Baking Merry Christmas GIF by Daisy LemonGiphy
So Many Late In Life Discoveries About Santa...
:A few years back, I realized that the Christmas song, 'I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus', wasn't actually about the mother being unfaithful and putting out for St. Nick, but it was just the dad dressed as Santa."
"For almost my entire life, I thought the mom just got around."
"I was 26 when I realized otherwise."- Shodspartan
Vintage Gas
"There was a reddit comment years ago I wish I would have saved. OP was like 8 year old and saw her dad pump gas, and asked what the numbers were, 87, 89 and 93."
"Dad said it was the year the gas was made, newer gas is more expensive."
"Done deal, that answer worked."
"Years later OP was like 19, riding in her boyfriend's car and offered to get out and pump gas for him, and ask, 'what year gas do you use?'"
"WHAT?"
"She explained more and he was in tears laughing."- somedude456
Some Might Call Them "Frenemies".
"I only recently realized that the phrase 'with friends like these who needs enemies?' is actually implying that you have awful friends, not that you have friends so good that you don’t need to worry about your enemies."- AubbleCSGO
what is fetch mean girls GIFGiphy
Gray Isn't The Only Color That Comes In 50 Shades...
"I didn’t realize until a couple of years ago it’s 'pitch black' as in pitch aka tar."- c_girl_108
Kids These Days...
"When I was teaching, I said something would be ludicrous, and the whole class looked at me with interest and surprise."
"They didn’t know Ludacris, the rapper’s name, was a pun."- Enough_Jellyfish5700
And No, B.C. Doesn't Mean "Before Christina Aguilera"
"For the longest time, I always thought Prima Donna was Pre-Madonna."- Firm-Answer-148
good morning hello GIFGiphy
But It's Much More Fun To Turn
"That big ship's wheel I got to turn as a kid was not actually controlling the cruise ship."- Tasty_Value
Dear Lord, Let's Hope Not!
"For a while I even confused astigmatism as A stigmatism."
"So I assumed that a person could also have two stigmatisms."- classystaircase52
A Matter Of Taste
"I recently discovered that honey isn't spicy."
"My husband was buying a bottle of hot honey, and I made some comment about the ridiculous marketing, since all honey is already spicy."
"Turns out I'm just allergic."- VacantMajesty
honey satisfying GIFGiphy
Some say ignorance is bliss.
And, in truth, all these people could have probably gone on living their lives perfectly fine without ever knowing any of these things.
Until that is, it came up in a conversation...