I was born and raised in NY. For the longest time, I used to think that every single person in the world was born in NY and then decided to either stay or move away.
the world
2,714 beliefs in this area
I used to believe that there were only office buildings in Manhattan and only zoos and farms on Staten Island.
I used to believe that each US state was a different country, and each of those countries spoke different languages. I was confused for a while about why my grandparents spoke English if they were from a different state.
My daughter Stella, who is 10 years old, just told me that when she was younger she thought that asking for country's capital city name was equivalent to asking for the country "pet name". That is certainly because - to a kid - the word "Brasilia" sounds like a "pet name" to the word "Brazil" and not the actual name of our capital city. In Brazil we also have a state called "Goiás" whose capital is "Goiânia", another "pet name" in her mind. And then, the funniest of all, was that she then concluded that France's capital would be "Francine".
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When I was little, my Mom told me that her grandmother was Austrian. I thought that I was Australian until I was in High School.
Growing up my dad was a big Denver Broncos fan. He called john elway "uncle John". So I spent most of my younger years thinking that John Elway was my uncle.
Up until the age of 8, I believed that when you made withdrawls from the bank (which I did with my mom), the bank was just giving away free money...I REALLY wanted a bank account!
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I used to believe that cables of TV were meant to carry money to broadcasters and that was how they earned money.
My older brother once told me that there were 52 states because of Puerto Rico and Alaska. Needless to say, I failed a lot of quizzes about the USA. And to this day I wonder what the other extra state must have been.
I used to believe that credit cards had compressed money in them. I thought that every time you swiped your credit card the machine would cut open the credit card, pull just the right money out and seal it back up.
You know how every state has an official state seal? Until I was in SIXTH grade I thought that every state had a real seal (the animal) at their state capital.
My older brother told me that Mt. Rushmore wasn't carved by anyone -- the rocks just "grew up" in that shape. "how could anyone have made it?" I said maybe Superman carved it, because he could fly and carve at the same time. My mother almost fell off the couch, laughing.
I used to believe that the Netherlands was the world. And the world was round, so my country was round. When I went on a holiday to Spain with my family we went by plane. So I figured Spain was another ball shaped country hanging in space. You had to take a plane to get there, of course! So the planet was to me a collection of spheres in different sizes closely together in space.
I used to believe that pennies functioned as dollars. My mom told me I needed seven dollars for the toy I wanted so I rushed and grabbed seven pennies. I swear I had enough.
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When I heard on the news that some on was shot at gunpoint, I thought "Gunpoint" was a place; I wondered why people kept going to Gunpoint.
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I used to believe that Polish people were from either the North or South Pole. My best friend is Polish and she thinks it's very amusing.
Untill I was about 9 I believed that the state that I was living in was in the middle of the ocean and that we were the only state with schools, cars, buildings, roads, etc.
When I was younger my family moved several states away. In class, there was a going away party for me and another girl who also happened to be moving. I thought that at least her and I could be friends after we moved, Like the world was point A and point B, and we were moving to point B.
I used to believe that if you went to the bank, you can take out as much money as you want even if you don't have an account and you don't need to pay it back. I believed this until I was 12.
I thought that ex-presidents always had to wear and "X," and if you called them President or ex-President, they would arrest you.