I thought everyone wanted to know how things worked and had innate curiosity.

It still blows my mind that people some people don't.

BarefootWoodworker Report

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I used to think everyone had a vivid inner monologue narrating their day, but then I found out some people don’t have one at all. It blew my mind when I realized that wasn't common.

Wonderful_Theme1383 Report

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The way the lights look at night when you have astigmatism. I saw a photo comparison of normal vision compared to vision with astigmatism, and it genuinely surprised me.

GloomOnTheGrey Report

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That some people's minds are just quiet. I thought everyone had an ongoing monolog of their life.

rainbowpinkie26 Report

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When I'm in a room with other people, part of my brain is paying attention to *every* conversation my ears can pick up, all at once. Specifically, it's paying attention to the emotional temper of each conversation, in case someone suddenly starts having a bad time.

Turns out most of you just listen to one conversation at a time. My way is actually a consequence of growing up around an explosive parent, deep down I don't want anything to happen that will lead to an angry person yelling at us. This also explains why I have a hard time in groups bigger than 10 or so, there tends to be too many voices having different conversations, and I get overwhelmed processing it all. If I can't keep up, I feel vulnerable and exposed, and things cycle downward from there.

gameryamen Report

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Mirroring other peoples behavior and making a "personality" fitting for them. Results in me being super stressed when I meet new people because I don't know how to behave. Social contact also costs a lot of energy. Turns out people don't think of that and just kinda go as themselves. However that's supposed to work.

Also genuinely enjoying being alone. I told a friend that I will just lock myself in my flat for a few days to relax and he said that's a "bit extreme". For me it's really nice and relaxing. I need my alone time and don't 'miss' social contact as fast as other people.

Kater-chan Report

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Not trusting your parents and being very careful not to share any details of your personal life because they'll use it against you. I thought everyone did it.

MsFlippy Report

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It took me until i was in my early 20s to realize that straight women actually do have romantic feelings for their male partners and i’m actually just a lesbian.

throwaway271999 Report

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I didn't realize that people didn't memorize movies to keep from being bored. When I was a kid, we lived pretty far from my grandparents, so that was a long trip in the car. So I learned that I could break up the time by "re watching" a movie as we drove. So I was praised for being able to sit still, but I was reciting Aladdin or Land Before Time in my head the whole time.

I still do this to some extent. The last time I was able to drive down to Florida, I looked at the trip time and thought, "Oh! That's not too bad! That's two Hamiltons and a Lion King!"

I didn't realize that other people didn't memorize scripts down to the actor's inflections until I took an acting course and monologues and cold reads came really easy to me. It turns out most people remember certain lines that they like or remember a funny scene is coming up.
I felt like the biggest dork when I explained it.

PixieQuirks Report

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I thought all girls would rather be boys if they had the choice.

Nope. Turns out I was trans. Took me 34 years of my life to realize that.

Jeramy_Jones Report

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When I was a kid, I'd walk to school. When it was cold, I'd come home and my mom would ask "why are you wheezing?" I'd shrug because I thought it was just what happened to people when it was cold.

Found out several years later that I had exercise induced asthma, and cold weather was my main trigger.

SomeGarbage292343882 Report

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I thought that being unhappy was normal, that people were just faking being happy. Then I was diagnosed with depression, got medication and it literally changed my life.

hepzibah59 Report

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Apologizing constantly, even for things that aren’t my fault. Turns out, not everyone feels the need to say ‘sorry’ all the time.

Hijastronaut Report

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How much I daydream

How much I over analyze every social encounter

How just imagining my sister dying will bring tears

How much I try to mentally prepare for my family members dying.

BrigitteSophia Report

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Constant counting in my head. Turns out that’s an OCD symptom. Didn’t realize until I was an adult. I count everything. Constantly.

JournalistShot1501 Report

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I thought it was normal that certain fabric textures make people feel physically nauseated and violently repulsed when touching them.

No, that’s called autism.

surk_a_durk Report

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My parents worked full time and left me home alone a lot. They never checked if I had homework or anything like that. So I'd just come home from school, watch TV, play with my dog, whatever, by myself. I literally never did my homework because no one was there to make me. More often than not I was a bit bored and lonely. Most days I would try and find a friend to come hang out. I'd ring (this was in the 90s) every single kid in my class to come over and play. They always said no, they weren't allowed, because they had homework to do and because my parents weren't home. I didn't understand the concept of "not allowed". My parents weren't even there. I could just go anywhere I wanted. Why couldn't they? It wasn't until I was an adult with my own kids that I realized their parents were just a lot more responsible than mine.

AriasK Report

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It took me awhile to put together that most people notice that they're hungry before it starts to hurt.

mugofsoul Report

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Constant existential dread. Turns out not everyone’s brain is a 24/7 horror show.

Trickymia Report

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When I think to myself, I often use “we”. If I’m getting up to get some coffee, I’ll think “let’s go get some coffee.” It’s not a split personality thing… I think I distinguish between the parts of me that does/feels/thinks things and the meta part of me that observes myself. 

I saw a Reddit post about this a few years ago, and I realized that a few people do the same thing, but most people think it’s very weird.  .

jtaulbee Report

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"You know how you mainly look through one eye?"

"What? No!"

"You don't mainly look out one eye?"

"No! I look through both my eyes equally!"

"Oh. I thought everyone had a preferred eye, like being right or left handed?"

"No!"

So turns out my left eye is REALLY bad and I'm not just. . . right-eyed.

Impressive_Big3342 Report

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Putting on socks before bed. I can not sleep without them, yet apparently other people find it strange!

DarkFrostedEcho Report

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I learned RECENTLY that working out isn’t supposed to hurt, it’s supposed to make you sore, not in like PAIN pain. Turns out I’m actually disabled and I can’t work out most of my upper body becuase of my spinal curvature. #LiveLaughLordosis.

Shonky_Honker Report

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Swimming. I grew up on a lake and was swimming as a baby. I probably spent years of my life in the water. I was shocked when I went to boot camp at Parris Island and half the recruits had never been in a pool, let alone knew how to swim.

_jump_yossarian Report

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I thought that everyone stopped eating dinner together as a family as soon as you learned how to eat without making a giant mess and no longer needed to be supervised while you ate your food. For basically my whole life other than the first few years, everyone in my family has ate dinner in separate areas at different times and I thought that the only families that ate dinner together were religious families.

I quickly discovered how wrong I was and how unconventional my family is. My parents are both functioning alcoholics in denial and did the bare minimum to ensure I had food and made it to school but that was about it. Once I finished elementary school and started going to middle school they were never involved in anything in my life and I moved out at the age of 14 which they had no issues with as long as I was still going to school, which I was.

brokenVoices Report

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Being able to dissociate on command apparently that’s a symptom of my cptsd but for a long time I thought everyone had the ability to just stop feeling all emotions & make the world seem fake like a video game that’s not the case I found that out at 24 when i finally found a good therapist ?.

CoralReefer1999 Report

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I thought everyone could make their eyes vibrate at will. But nope! 

Bartok_and_croutons Report

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Honestly, when I was little I thought most people were hyper insane evangelical Christians like I was raised. I got out of that world in high school. As a kid I knew SOME people weren’t Christian, but I truly thought it was the norm. Now I see that my upbringing was really extreme and bordered on cult.

ApollyonRising Report

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Eviction. I thought it was how people moved.

Thinks_22_Much Report

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