outer space

When I was young, I used to believe that we lived "inside" the globe and what we on maps are actually what the clouds form in the sky. Then one day, mom told me we lived "on" earth. I was scared as hell, and avoided going out of my home at night because I feared I'd fall off the surface!

Mehreen

I used to think we were all living inside the earth instead of on top of it. I wondered how space ships got out. Did they poke a hole through the earth to reach space?

Catherine

I used to think gravel was the same as gravity. Like the rocks in our driveway are what held us to the earth. When you think about it, gravity is hard to perceive when it's so intangible.

K

I used to believe there were seven universes, arranged in concentric circles. The middle (first) one was yellow, and the next was white. We live in the third. Then there was another called the Outer Outer White, which contained the planet where my imaginary dinosaur friends lived. Then a green one and a yellow one, and finally another black one like ours but much, much bigger.
In about third grade I got in an argument with a classmate about this. He said that there were thousands of universes. When I went home and asked my mom, she said we're both wrong, there is only one universe, that's where the "uni" part comes from.

Aretia, master of seven universes

When I looked outside and I saw how the moon would change from one day to weeks later, I thought it was from "smurfs", or little blue alien people eating the moon because I thought it was made of cheese. The less of the moon was showing, the more the "smurfs" ate. And when it was a new moon, the "smurfs" would eat all of it and slowly the moon cheese would grow back to a full moon, and that's when the "smurfs" would start eating it again.

Alea

At night I would hear the chirping crickets and thinking it was comeing from the stars in the sky!

delana

when I was small I always thought that the solar system ended, and then it was just white paper after that

sparrow

I always thought the sound of the crickets chirping at night was the sound of the stars twinkling. I thought a “twinkle” was a sound. In my mind I imagined the stars kind of flickering while they made the noise.

Karen

I used to beleive that the moon was where the local fair was.

tah

I used to believe that we lived inside of the Earth, not on its outside surface. I always wanted to feel the inside edge.

Marcus

I used to believe that comets were pieces of the Sun that had broken off.

Carmen

I believed many of those sparkling things in the sky were satellites. Every company, every satellite tv, radio, and telephone company had at least a dozen of them. It wasn't until I was in my early 20s that I learned in a college astronomy class that satellites are extremely hard to see. ... During a lab outdoors at night I pointed out to my professor (who happened to work for Nasa in his free time) what I though was a satellite. He informed me it was a star. I then proceeded to ask why it was flashing red, white, and blue then (because, American satellites flash lights that we can see, right?). He very flatly said "it's twinkling."

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