I was today years old when I learned 'goodbye' is short for something.
Listen — it's happened to all of us. You know, that"aha!" moment when you finally put two and two together and have a sweet, sweet epiphany.only to share that new finding with someone else and realize it was totally obvious and you were actually way late to the game.
Listen — it's happened to all of us. You know, that"aha!" moment when you finally put two and two together and have a sweet, sweet epiphany...only to share that new finding with someone else and realize it was totally obvious and you were actually way late to the game.Personally, mine was realizing that"mermaid" was mer plus maid. I thought this was absolutely groundbreaking, and my friend was like,"Girl......" Humbling, truly., they asked,"What really obvious thing have you only just realized?" People were refreshingly honest in their answers, ranging from low-key hilarious to genuinely informative. Here are 17 of the very best examples people shared:"How the American bail system works. I thought it was a sum of money you paid to avoid jail. I was surprised when I realized you get the money BACK if you show up for your trial."if a judge grants bail, that means the defendant can pay that amount of money to the court and does not have to stay in jail until their court date. At the end of the trial, regardless of whether the defendant is determined to be guilty or not guilty, they get their bail money returned simply for showing up., not just a town putting its name on a tank and saying, 'Hey, look how much dang water WE have.'"to the 1570s, in which it was similarly used as a greeting, predominantly in England. In the early 19th century, it was shortened to"howdy" as we know it today."I was, like, 25 when I found out the jugs of washer fluid outside the gas station aren't free. I was walking out of the gas station with a buddy one day, grabbed a jug of washer fluid, and he asked me, 'Did you just steal that?' I was like, 'No, dude, it's free.' Turns out it's not. I stole washer fluid for nearly ten years of driving, and no one ever said anything to me about it.""My 21-year-old cousin just realized he is mildly allergic to peanut butter and has been his whole life. Until now, he had assumed EVERYONE'S throat closed up a little while eating a PB&J sandwich, but they just fought through it.""I was at least 50 when I learned that the little piggy who went to market wasn’t going shopping."reads,"This little piggy went to market." As it is often recited or sung by children, people tend to assume the piggy is simply having a nice little trip to the supermarket to get groceries. In actuality, though, that unfortunate little piggy is headed to the slaughter to be put up "I know 'Felix' is the Latin word for 'happy,' but only recently did I discover the name Felix also means 'lucky.' There's a cartoon character named 'Felix the Cat' who is a black cat, and I'm just now getting the irony of naming him that."You may have heard the phrase"blind as a bat" before, which people say to imply that someone has bad eyesight. Well, as it turns out,"You don’t have to go to the dealership to get it fixed. Any auto parts store will have the battery, and most will replace it for you!""We have a local plumbing company call 'Abacus' with the tag line 'you can count on us.' After 20 years, I realized their logo was an abacus."If you're not familiar with an abacus, it's a tool that dates waaay back to ancient times and was used for counting. Odds are, you probably played with one as a kid — for some strange reason, they tended to be in pediatricians' waiting rooms. Anyway, the name and tagline are a pun!And finally,"I should take this to the grave, but I somehow thought Mickey Mouse was a dog until I was 17. I’m 24 now. One day, I just saw a Mickey Mouse somewhere and went, 'Why does he have such a skinny little tail??? It looks like a ra-…wait…'"I hope you had a laugh and perhaps learned something new from this! Now, it's your turn: Have you ever missed something that was seemingly obvious to everyone else and had an"aha!" moment like these people? If so, tell us about it in the comments below!