People Who Grew Up Sheltered Share Which Things Most Surprised Them In The Real World

Missing out on the best holiday all those years.

People who celebrate Halloween aren't all Satan worshippers damned to Hell.

0veranalytica1

A life-changing realization.

My first week in college, I was hanging with some new friends in someone's dorm room, and I realized I didn't have a curfew. I didn't have someone waiting by the clock for me to get home.

I stayed out all night and then called my grandma the next day to tell her about it. I was so excited. I think that was my first realization that I really was, for all practical purposes, on my own at last.

amiker7709

That's a tough thing to learn late in life.

I had a hard time picking up on sarcasm. I'd try my best to play it cool while being deeply confused. Sex was so demonized in the house I grew up in, I had no context for what was actually appropriate sexually.

I struggled to discern between sexual jokes, flirting and harassment all blended together into one confusing mess. It was not a fun learning curve.

Trippingthevoid

Adulting problems.

Things go wrong all the time. My oven recently shattered whilst cooking a pizza for no reason.

I just brought all my groceries with my budget and they were mostly oven based. Now f**ked for about 3 weeks.

Laputai

Amazing.

When I was in college I was an awkward, sweet, little Christian boy who didn't know how to talk to anybody. Imagine my surprise when one of the first people I met, a big guy with a beard and neck tattoos, revealed he had a vagina.

Cool guy, though.

ahumantootle

Wait....there aren't?

If you step outside, more likely than not, you aren't going to immediately be kidnapped, tortured, and murdered.

Still keeps me from going outside. Not a great thing to teach a kid.

gcbase

What a strange thing to experience for the first time.

The first violent video game I saw. I had never seen gore, in real life or even in movies, before. I was fresh out of a private Christian school and finally got invited to my first public school friend's house. She and some other guy friends started playing a zombie shooter game. Every time they killed one of the zombies, I saw blood and brains splatter.

I wanted so badly to fit in but my brain couldn't process something so terrible as entertainment. I felt my stomach turn and felt so physically ill I needed to leave the room.

My friend left with me and was extremely understanding. About a decade later, we're still best friends and we love playing shooters together.

tindremene

Sh*t happens.

I kinda fell apart. Suddenly I could eat what I wanted, when I wanted, go where I wanted, do what I could afford (man, credit cards suck rocks) and no one was looking over my shoulder making sure I did what I was supposed to.

I'm still digging my way out of the hole I made.

Captain_Shrug

Awwww

God, I didn't even have a slight idea of what sex was until I had sex-ed, I didn't know what catcalling was, and to this day I don't get the most obvious dirty jokes. People still awww at me because of that.

lollipep

Every kid hates seeing that.

Parents actually argue in front of their kids. My parents never did. And honestly just recently figured out that they weren't absolutely perfect and they had their fair share of arguments. But I never saw any of them.

It disgusts me when 2 parents scream and yell at each other in front of their kids. Just a very s****y example.

Ars_Are_Beast

That's a whole new level of sheltered.

Not that I was really sheltered, but something similar.

Basically, until I was 6, I didn't go to any kindergarten or meet any kids my age. I used to live with my mom, my little sister, aunt, grandpa and his wife, so there was always someone looking after my sister and I. My everyday life was just mostly playing with my sister.

So since I never talked or even met anyone other than my family, entering school was weird. I s**t you not, I didn't know what friends were. Like, I actually didn't know what "Friends" meant. I just thought that they were dumb talking to strangers and getting familiar with them.

yoyoismycity

Learned that lesson the hard way.

I literally burned out the motor on an apartment washing machine because I filled it too full and it blew the motor. It set off the fire alarm and the building was evacuated. I did not do my own laundry until I moved out.

petitelapinyyc

Oof.

No one told me anything about being pregnant. No one told me you could get pregnant while on birth control if you take antibiotics. No one told me you can miscarry or that its quite common. Very traumatic. 0/10 do not recommend.

NightPhox

Crazy, right?

That I was a person apart from my parents. As soon as I graduated high school it was "You're an adult now. You have a job. You can do whatever you want." Etc. That really threw me for a loop because I never really thought I had free will.

miiilkyoats

A nice surprise.

No one "persecuted" me for being a Christian. I was always told growing up that people would despise and slander anyone who was a Christian, and that college would be incredibly difficult and I would have to be a "warrior for Christ."

Instead I made secular friends who helped me dismantle my toxic mindset of fear and guilt, a nice Lutheran guy asked me out, and I had a blast sharing my opinions in an environment that encouraged debate and questions, instead of giving the pre-approved non-answers. I'll be starting my next semester in a few weeks and I can't wait.

Charliesokay