It’s been said that we “learn something new every day.” That’s probably truer for some people than others, but there are plenty of blindspots we all have that we don’t even realize. After all, we don’t have personal fact-checkers following us around and filling us in on all the mistakes we make. There are also plenty of misleading “facts” that get drummed into our heads as children, and ones we never think to question.
One Twitter user decided to ask her followers about their most random epiphanies and the responses did not disappoint. (Forgive these people, for they know not what they do.)
Shannon Proudfoot recently asked her Twitter followers about their most mundane yet earth-shattering epiphanies.
What’s the most mundane but thunderous epiphany you ever had? Something so ridiculously dull or elementary that still bowled you over when you figured it out?
— Shannon Proudfoot (@sproudfoot) October 16, 2018
1. Like this grocery store conundrum.
Mine: when I was a kid grocery shopping with my mom, I always watched her open the egg cartons and tap all the eggs. I worried she was losing it, because clearly all 12 were there. Eventually I realized she was rocking them to make sure none were broken. https://t.co/HAsdlEPxmZ
— Shannon Proudfoot (@sproudfoot) October 16, 2018
2. And the supervillain named ‘Arson.’
I thought Arson was a guy. The news would say “Arson is suspected.” And I was like, ‘Another one?!? They gotta catch this guy!’
— Todd Devlin (@ToddDevlin) October 16, 2018
3. This hilarious national anthem rewrite.
My sister thought the national anthem began with, “Jose, can you see?” That was the best???
— Lisa Stewart✴️ (@holachola) October 17, 2018
4. An incredibly useful piece of automobile trivia.
The little arrow on the side of the gas indicator on your car’s dashboard points to which side the tank is on.
— David Moscrop (@David_Moscrop) October 16, 2018
5. This filthy misunderstanding.
I thought money laundering was physically washing the money and hanging it to dry to get cocaine residue off of it. A whole room of people silently stared at me after I announced this.
— Crab Navi ? (@ChickenPoutine) October 16, 2018
6. ‘Penny for your thoughts’ doesn’t apply here.
Pennies are brown so i used to think abraham lincoln was black. It wasn’t until obama was going to be the first black president that i realized lincoln wasn’t.
— Teo (@supafly_othello) October 17, 2018
7. This zoological mistake.
When I was 10yo my grandmother called one fall day and said there were dozens of chipmunks in the trees at our cottage. I begged my mother to go and was heartbroken when I arrived to find no apes. I had thought chipmunks were chimpanzees. I wasn’t a very precocious 10yo
— Scott Reid (@_scottreid) October 16, 2018
8. And this one too.
That chipmunks are not baby squirrels, but their own animal. I was about 16 and said to a friend “Yunno, I don’t think chipmunks and squirrels are actually the same animal,” and he went “YEAH DUDE IMAGINE THAT.”
— Dakota (@dakota_burgin) October 16, 2018
9. An astronomical error.
The moon also rises in the east and sets in the west. Only realized it a few years ago. Before that I guess I figured it just wandered randomly across the sky.
— Andrew Potter (@jandrewpotter) October 16, 2018
10. This not-so-obvious acronym.
Tag = Touch And Go. I could say I was today years old when I found this out, but more like last month years old.
— Kyle Adam (@KyleAdam83) October 16, 2018