"What was the thing you thought was a lie until you realised it was true?" –– Special thanks to Redditor 
SYETHOUD, who reminds us that things aren't always as they appear.
"When I was 10..."
When I was 10 my mom was giving me the puberty talk. I thought she was lying and trying to scare me when she said that I'd wake up one day with blood in my underwear.
"My older uncle..."
My older uncle told me when I turn 30 go buy a suit because you 'll have a lot of funerals to attend. I'm now late 30s and been to 5 in the past few years.
"This guy..."
This guy acting like he was crazy when I got to college. He was so over the top and since I was at an artsy school, I thought it was an act. Later in the year he launched himself from a third-story balcony into the dining hall. Yeah, it wasn't an act.
"Later, I realized the appeal..."
That adults put their tongues in each other's mouths on purpose and that they like it. Legit thought the other girls in kindergarten were lying and it made me nauseous. Later, I realized the appeal..... much much later.
"When I was 6..."
When I was 6, I asked my mom how babies were made. She told me very matter-of-factly that a man puts his penis inside a woman's vagina. I thought she was making up a weird, gross lie to avoid telling me the real truth.
"While changing countries..."
While changing countries, I was told that I would feel a sense of homelessness and I didn't really believe it. I've been away for college and back to my home country during summer for almost 3 years now, and I have acquired a constant feeling of being misplaced both at the country I've moved to AND at my home country. It's terrible.
"My mom told me..."
My mom told me that after high school, I'd lose some of my closest friends. "They're going to move on and start turning into other people over time." I laughed that off because I thought we weren't going to be like that.
We were just seven unpopular kids with a hilarious group chat. We did so much together. Now, there's two of us left.
I miss them.
"That my friend..."
That my friend could not be trusted.
It should not have taken 11 years to accept that.
If everyone around you doesn't like somebody that you're close to, and has good reason for their distrust, take their word for it and really, REALLY rethink if the way they treat you is truly better than just being alone.
"I was in my mid-20s..."
I was in my mid-20s when I discovered that narwhals were actual animals and not made up like unicorns.
"That kids..."
That kids pick their nose and ate boogers. I always thought it was just a mean rumor kids spread about other kids. Then when I was 17 or 18 my best friend casually mentioned that she did it as a kid. Mind. Blown.
"Hit and Run"
I thought one of my good friends killed two people in a hit and run.
We knew he was a crazy aggressive driver. He lived a block from where the accident occurred. We knew he would've been coming home on that street at around that time. The witness description matched his vehicle.
And he suddenly disappeared to Mexico two days after it happened. When he came back, he didn't have his vehicle.
We knew somebody in our group must have tipped off the police, because when he came back a couple weeks later, he told us all about how he was questioned upon his return from Mexico. He said he went to go see his ailing grandpa, and they decided to stay a couple extra weeks so his mom could make plans for a lengthy visitation over the Summer. He left his vehicle there so his mom could drive around in a safer, less Lexus-shaped car.
They didn't have enough evidence to arrest him, his story checked out, and they let him go without incident.
For years we thought he had gotten away with vehicular manslaughter. It was kind of the "dark secret" between us that we didn't bring up openly. We were all pretty certain he was guilty, and the police completely failed in thoroughly investigating him, probably because he came from an affluent family of lawyers.
Turns out we were wrong. About 10 years after the fatal hit and run, some random old guy who lived 20 miles away was arrested for DUI hit and run. His vehicle matched the description of another recent hit and run. They did some digging to see just how many hit and runs this guy had, and they found evidence that would've put him at the one we thought our friend did. He plead guilty, and last I checked, faced 20+ years.
So I'm conflicted. Do I owe my friend an apology for simply thinking he was guilty, and expressing that thought to other people who already felt the same way? Or do I just forego the apology, recognize I never brought it up to his face, and leave behind a chapter I'm sure he'd like to leave behind as well?
'On purpose'
That adults put their tongues in each other's mouths on purpose and that they like it. Legit thought the other girls in kindergarten were lying and it made me nauseous. Later, I realized the appeal..... much much later.
People eat cactus
I hear Cactus juice is very thirst-quenching.
Drink cactus juice, it'll quench ya! Nothings quenchier! It's the quenchiest!
Unicorn is the national animal of Scotland.
Scotland is now my favorite country
Probably a little late for anyone to see this, but it's not that odd really. The unicorn was picked in the 12th century because it was believed to fight the lion, which was England's symbol. Nobody in Scotland had seen a unicorn, sure, but nobody in England had seen a lion either. The unicorn was about as reasonable to believe in for Scots as the lion was for English, and appears in bestiaries well through the Renaissance.
"Running Out'
That the world is running out of beach sand. Erosion is stripping all the sand from the shores into the ocean, and desert sand is too fine to replace it. It's so bad that many countries have a sand black market.
Edit: Black Market is of River and Beach sand to build artificial land and replenish beach sand.oyal
'Made up"
I was in my mid-20s when I discovered that narwhals were actual animals and not made up like unicorns.
These were explored when Redditor Fronzie7 quoted a famous music icon to ask:
"Frank Sinatra said, 'The best revenge is massive success' What's a real-life example of this?"
Everyone loves a good Hollywood ending.
You Know You've Made It When You're On A Lunchbox
"Michael J.Fox has a great story about when he started out. Some big wheel at the network didn't like him for the role of Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties. He was too short, not cute, not heart throb enough, you're never going to see his face on a lunch box. But the producer cast him anyway and the show shot to number one and stayed there."
"Fox sent him a Family Ties lunch box with his face on it and then Back to the Future 1,2,3 lunch boxes."
– Hazelsmom64
A Rocky Start To An Amazing Career
"Sylvester Stallone as well. Casting agents told him he was too stupid looking and he'd only get small roles as the thug who got beaten up. He said he literally went to every casting agent in NYC and got rejected by all of them."
"Even after he wrote Rocky and found producers, they didn't want him to star in it."
– YounomsayinMawfk
The Dreamgirl Who Never Stopped Dreaming
"Jennifer Hudson lost American Idol and became more successful than the winner."
– Stashdragon
"She is a recent EGOT winner and the youngest woman to do it. 7th Place looks fantastic on her."
– jdmccoy
Against all odds, the end result was a victory for these accomplished individuals.
Home Surveillance Home Run
"The guy who invented Ring cameras went on Shark Tank and was rejected by everyone. They all thought it would fail….we’ll you know the rest."
– Ruzzthabus
"He went back on Shark Tank after that, but this time as one of the sharks."
– 1Land_1Keep
The Skies The Limit
"Ron McNair had the police called on him when he was little because he was black and reading in a library. He grew up to be an astronaut and the library he was kicked out of was later named after him."
– sperdush
"For those who may not be familiar with his name; he was one of the Challenger crew members on January 28, 1986."
– This-Marsupial-6187
Emerged From The Shallow
"When Lady GaGa was in college, some of her classmates had a Facebook group called 'Stefani Germanotta, you'll never be famous.'"
"Pretty sure she proved them wrong."
– NotHisRealName
Now these are smart business moves.
Recipe For Success
"Erin French, chef-owner of restaurant The Lost Kitchen in rural Maine."
"Co-owned a restaurant in the town of Belfast with her husband; a very tumultuous relationship ended with him changing the locks on the building with all of her equipment inside."
"She licked her wounds, leased space in an old mill building in her tiny hometown of Freedom, and built from the ground one of the best restaurants in the country, with a coveted reservation that is fabled for its difficulty to get a table. Has her own multi-season documentary on TV and is absolutely killing it in the culinary world now."
– Girhinomofe
A Toy Story
"George Lucas got the ownership of the toy rights to star wars because they don’t think it would be successful. He made an absolute killing on those."
– Birds-aint-real-
"Not just the toy rights, he got the entire IP in exchange for waiving is salary."
– xdert
Lamborghini Origin Story
"Italian industrialist, builder of tractors, made a mint out of it and rewarded himself with a new Ferrari."
"Ferrari broke down. Needed a new clutch. Wealthy industrialist waited patiently for his new clutch to arrive, and after many weeks it finally showed up - same clutch he was putting in his tractors, more than twice the price."
"A little bit annoyed at this, he rang Ferrari to complain. They told him 'go back to building tractors, leave supercars to us.'"
"And Lamborghini was born..."
– RaffiaWorkBase
Gaming Victory
"Sony and Nintendo were working on a console together before the N64 came out, intending to utilize Nintendo's gaming hardware combined with Sony's sound tech to create games with more immersive sound capabilities than have been seen before. Partway through development and immediately following Sony's announcement of their partnership, Nintendo backed out of the deal, which if you're not aware of Japanese business etiquette, is kind of a d*ck move."
"Nintendo backed out to work with Philips to put Nintendo games on the CDi, which resulted in the worst-received Nintendo games of all time."
"Sony, out of spite, went on to make the PlayStation, one of the best-selling consoles in gaming history, and cement themselves as a massive player in the console wars to this day."
– Critical-String8774
Be Kind And Rewind
"Blockbuster laughed baby Netflix out of the room with their idea. Then later, grown-up Netflix killed blockbuster."
– ChurroForSure-o
"Best thing for Netflix, really. Blockbuster would have driven themselves and the Netflix rent model out of business through mismanagement."
"I don't know about you, but I can't live in a world without Voltron: Legendary Defender."
– Tobias_Atwood
So what's the moral of the story?
Basically, always be kind and never make anyone feel less than they deserve. You never know what the future brings, and you putting down someone for your own fleeting gain will come back to haunt you.
Also, remember that karma works in mysterious ways.
Redditor Cyber_Optics05 wanted to discuss all the reasons friends tend to go their separate ways, so they asked:
"What kicked off the end of a friend group?"
Just life.
That's how my groups have disbanded.
It happens.
Vanished
GIF by VPROGiphy"Two of us got in relationships and just... vanished. I get it, the honeymoon period is a hell of a drug, but it hurts to know that some people are one good date away from forgetting they have friends."
Schroedingersrabbit
Goodbyes
"They all died, within a month. To be clear, they were all older guys, 68, 74, and 89 (I was about 50). Group of friends I had in my building, we'd have coffee every day and watch a few sitcoms, and chat."
"Fred died first, which was sad, but the dude was nearly 90. Then Terry died, he had a couple of chronic conditions, and a chemo treatment messed everything up. And then a couple weeks Dave died, from complications caused by Complex Regional Pain Disorder. For him, death was a mercy."
Squigglepig52
Pasted
"The friend who was the 'glue' of the group moved to the other coast and one of the couples broke up the same weekend. I tried to invite the old gang to a birthday party and the only one who showed up was the one who moved."
Evening-Ambition-406
"That’s similar to what’s happening with my friend group. I was the glue, but now I’ve gotten too busy to be able to hang out, so it all kind of just fell apart. The few times I show up to lunch no one says anything."
Dry_Cell560
Being Fair
"In the middle of that right now. Used to play video games several nights a week, DND every other week, and meet up to hang out on a regular basis. Then he met someone, and he just started bailing on everything and has now moved in with them after 4 months. Never even made an effort to introduce us to the new person. I've just got to accept that he's happy, and I'm glad for that, but I'm also not willing to put in the effort for no return, and that's also fair."
karnim
New Chapters
Jump Yes GIF by Valparaiso UniversityGiphy"Grad school finished and we all scattered."
whywasthatagoodidea
"Grad school was the last time it was easy to make friends. Now in the adulting world and it all sucks. Especially if you don't have kids and that's the main way adults seem to pair up is having kids involved in things where you meet other parents."
growling_owl
The school days are over.
Then so is the love.
Drama
joan collins march GIFGiphy"One of us broke up my sister's marriage and started immediately dating her after she kicked her husband out. And they tried to act like nothing happened."
darthurface
Money Changes Everything
"They all got rich. I did not."
Dudian613
"I remember as a kid version I very specifically drifted away from my high school friend group because all my friends at the time were super smart and successful and I was on a straight shot to community college (loved community college no hate just as a teenager at the time it's hard to see the value over the flashier universities)."
Sad_Quote1522
Blown Apart
"One friend started dating one of the other friend's ex. Blew apart a 35+ year friendship we had between four of us since grade school. We all live within 2 miles of each other, but none of us have talked to any of the others in over 25 years."
wyoflyboy68
"I need to point out that the only person to ruin anything is the friend whose ex started dating one of the group. they were not together and you can't fault love. because they got all up in their feelings doesn't mean the other person did something wrong."
glucoseintolerant
The Great Upheaval
"COVID wrecked a lot of my social life. We had a weekly game night and weekly trivia night and a few other semi-regular events and none of them have come back."
"A lot of my friends have gotten married or started families over the pandemic so it's possible that maybe this was going to happen anyway, but it sucks to go from a pretty thriving social routine to nothing. I still have friends and we still do things together but I miss the regularity we used to have."
Badloss
The Next Generation
Playing Happy Children GIF by MOODMANGiphy"Kids. One of the couples got pregnant and within a couple of months, it basically went from 12-15 of us down to 4. Can’t complain though. The 4 of us are living much better lives now."
BigOgre2010
Kids ruin everything.
Get a dog.
They adapt to friends better.
Kidding, of course!
Have you ever experienced a friend group falling apart? Let us know in the comments.
