Things you used to believe

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I used to think that the last number was 100.

That most of the kids around me were insufferably stupid and they were doing it on purpose. This eventually changed to be that I believed kids were lazy dull creatures in general though oddly I still wanted their attention. Mostly to show off and to lead in the complex games and playing that make up childhood. I thought that friends were merely there to be used as pawns so to speak though I still had some idea of having a favorite that you were affectionate towards in the same way you had a favorite toy.

Also I believed everyone else was part of a club that I didn't know the secret password to become a member of. They all had lessons on talking properly and eye contact etc since they all knew how to socialize and I didn't. Or that I had somehow missed the lesson in how to socialize and read body language and sarcasm- that everyone was intentionally not sharing information.

I thought grown ups actually had eyes at the back of their head and I wondered how they could see through their hair. I would ask them that and they could never answer that. It just never made sense.

I thought adults made rules to punish kids and adults enjoyed doing it and they did it for control and for revenge so don't piss them off or they will get back at you by punishing you.

That if you left a window open at night and heard three taps there would be a lady clinging onto your window ledge grinning and ready to ram one of her fingers up into your eye socket, I used to believe a lot of cheerful things like that, the people I hung around with as a kiddie were all rather entranced by ghoulish gossip. I sometimes blissfully forgot this particular legend and would occasionally find my eyes drifting to the window and I would be jolted into a state of fizzing panic and pluck up the courage to yank it shut whilst holding a toy pistol or something in one hand.

I used to think that the world was run by the most intelligent people, not the greediest.

I thought being a robber was an occupation and then I thought they robbed houses to get free stuff because they couldn't be bothered to buy it themselves but no, most of the things they will take is what they will get money for because these people are either drug addicts or poor so they are desperate to pay rent and their other bills or their medical bill or something and that is why crime and poor are often associated together and stereotyped that poor people and the homeless are criminals.

People were homeless because they were too lazy to get a job and couldn't be bothered to work and their parents kicked them out of their house. That was what my mom told my brothers and I in the 4th grade but I think she only said that so we wouldn't get scared about going homeless because my brother asked why some people don't have a house or unless she was ignorant then and then she learned and started to have compassion. My mom has never been mentally ill, disabled, or poor so she wouldn't know what she would be talking about. But having a disability myself I can see myself being homeless if I didn't have a supportive family so maybe that is how she learned. But honestly if I landed up being homeless, I would be suicidal and not care what happens to me even if it means getting myself kidnapped and being a traffic slave. I would be suicidal so I wouldn't give a s**t what happens to me because I am too much of a coward to commit suicide. I don't have the balls. I have no idea how people manage to be homeless because that is not the life I would want and I would rather want to be dead than living in the streets and losing everything.

I thought people committed suicide to punish people around them and they were very selfish people and had no compassion for their loved ones. i still don't understand it because I have felt that way before but what keeps me alive is knowing how it will affect my family so I don't understand why others can't do that too.

People threatening suicide to get their way, sometimes this is true which is called emotional blackmail or manipulation but they're not suicidal but it makes it hard to tell if it's genuine or just manipulation so just call 911 or something if someone threatens it or give them a suicide hotline number for them to call if they threaten it. Make it backfire for them if it was indeed a game. Also remember it's not your fault if your ex or your child or anyone commits suicide because you dumped them or gave them a consequence or whatsoever.

I thought jail was a place adults go when they did a crime and they stay there for years, not a place they go when they are awaiting trial. I couldn't understand what was the difference between jail and prison until middle school.

I thought juvenile home was a kid jail for kids and they had toys there so they wouldn't be bored than knowing it's just a prison for kids under 18 and they have a school inside it so they still get their education and there are no toys in there. None of the cells are like how your bedroom would look.


I thought every crazy person was thrown in a mental hospital if they believed in things that were not real. That is only true if they have committed a crime and were found not guilty due to insanity but no one is going to throw in you a mental hospital if you believe you are an angel or that Julia Roberts is related to you and she doesn't even know it or thinking you have an IQ of 210 and are very smart and a genius because you know how to hook up regular speakers to a computer unless you are really that ill and the hospital decides you really need treatment against your consent but it's very difficult to get hospitalized against your consent when you are delusional. My mom's family had a hard time getting my aunt the help she needed because she wasn't sick enough to get it but she was too sick to get it herself. No hospital would keep her and they would release her after 72hrs because of the law and she was committing non violent crimes like washing her car naked because she didn't want to get any of her clothes dirty and then have to do laundry.

I used to think only dim-witted people could be hypnotized and not smart or clever people because that's what always happened in cartoons and movies. And that they could be forced to do things against their will. Of course when people are hypnotized for entertainment you'd think they wouldn't want to do something harmless but silly or embarrassing like act like they're babysitting baby space aliens while on a trip to Las Vegas, but they might if they think it's okay to do it.

That dinosaurs were very slow, stupid beasts and that's why they went extinct, but humans didn't have to worry because we're too smart, thanks to the old outdated books about dinos I read as a kid. In school!

That there was a god called God and he had a son named Jesus who was sent to earth to suffer and die horribly and that if we don't pray or go to church we'll go to hell (my mom said we didn't need to do those last two things, but my school and the family next door...)

That medicines or pills were safe and had no bad side effects and I should always take them without question if a doctor or my parents gave them to me. It was only drugs from "bad" people that were bad.

That I was the only kid on the whole planet that had trouble skipping rope, playing hopscotch, climbing, jumping, or tying my own shoes.

And one time when I was really young my parents took my brother and me to the Fortress of Louisbourg, and they took a picture of us both sitting on one of the cannons, and I was scared and crying because I thought the cannons were going to shoot us.

And another time when they took us to the Alexander Graham Bell museum I was disappointed because back then I thought all museums had huge dinosaur skeletons and instead it was boring old phones and airplanes and stuff. I'm glad I'm able to appreciate that museum now.

I thought this too for the longest time.


I never tried to take them off but I was confused by that sign and I guess I asked my mom why you needed to be half naked in the store.


Same. At first I seem to remember I kinda equated autism with being mentally ret*d
I had no idea about it being neurodivergent for a long time.


I used to think I was just quirky. I didn't try to prove otherwise although I think subconciously I must have known because I looked back to an old post of mine on a message board and I said "it's like I'm autistic or something"
I often miss those days though. It's a lot more difficult to see yourself as something that can be construed as a disability.


Ha it's okay I'm a female and it wasn't until shortly after I became legal age that I realized I don't pee out of my vagina. Similarly I thought a vagina was one area. I didn't know there was a clit a labia etc. They taught this in sex ed class and I was listening so I don't know how I thought this.
Also when I first got my period I thought I was dying and started freaking out

Now for the sad part: I used to think that if you worked hard you could be successful. I don't think I ever thought that you could be anything you want but just to get a job you liked.

My list of silly things:
*Lindsay Lohan had a twin
*UTIs were only something you got when you didn't clean yourself enough
*Condoms weren't pieces of rubber. I don't know what I thought they were but I didn't think they were rubber
*Salem from Sabrina the Teenage Witch (with Melissa Joan Hart) was only played by one cat
*All movies are done on location with special effects automatically added in so I did not know about the "green screen"
*This was when I was about 6 or maybe younger. My mom said I got scared in Woolworths because I thought the blow up witch was going to come after me
*Dogs don't smile then a few years later I started thinking dogs always smile because of them panting
*People in movies or TV shows are told lines and then have to remember them

That if I stopped believing in Santa he'd stop bringing me presents or punish me in some other scary way, like turn me into an ugly-looking toy and be stuffed into his sack (I heard something like that one time on the radio!)

That feeding candy or cookies to a dog would give it worms (this is what the adults used to tell me, but it couldn't be true if *I* could eat the same things and not get worms. Parasites in my food, what a lovely thought, thanks Mom and Dad! )

That a "flu bug" was a real bug, like an insect, speaking of parasites.

I thought they were the same thing until after reading that.



I used think that too. But not just the flu, but any kind of "bug". "Oh, he's got that stomach bug." "There's a bug going around." I used to think they were all some kind of insect.

Those people who think they have a "bug" may not be wrong after all. I have watched way too many of those medical shows where people who thought they had some sort of flu actually turned out to have some sort of parasite or worse inside their bodies.

I used to think there was a trillion people in the world (it wasn't too long ago that I learnt it was 7 billion).

When I was about 3 I used to think if I saw a policeman he will come and arrest me for no reason, just because he's a policeman.

When I moved to another country and changed schools there was a group of girls in my class who all had the same unicorn T-shirt. I thought that if I wore the same T-shirt then I would be their freind, but my mum wouldn't let me buy it.
I also used to think that all my social difficulties came from not getting that T-shirt, and I wondered how different my life would have been if my mum had let my have it. Turns out, it probably would have been exactly the same.

I first heard the term stomach bug in a episode of Rugrats when I was 13 so I thought grandpa was lying when he told Stu and Didi he had a bug in his stomach. Well he was lying but I thought he meant a real bug in is stomach.

That I was normal.

I used to think that having unshaved legs as a girl was socially acceptable. I found that out the hard way in a gym class when I was 16.