places

I used to believe that there were only office buildings in Manhattan and only zoos and farms on Staten Island.

Anon

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.

Anon

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".

Nino

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.

Jocelyn

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.

Anon

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.

Marieke

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.

Anon

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.

Anon

When I was a child I honestly thought Chicago was a state. I don't know how old I was when I learned that it was a city in Illinois.

Elistariel

I used to believe the world was all in on my life a bit like the trueman show and when we would go on holiday it was like our house had been transformed into a new scenery and I would try and find something similar to our house in the hotel or my uncles house. The plane ride was a stall for everyone to get everything set up.

Anon

On family road trips, my parents always told me that water towers were filled with chocolate.

Edith

Until 8 years old I thought that different countries that we visited during long evening airline flights were actually different planets. This explained why certain places were much hotter/colder than others (tropical Asia were Mercury or Venus closer to the Sun, while Northern Europe was Saturn.)

JT

i used to believe that the country Thailand was actually 'tyre-land', a magical place with tyres and elephants to play with.

Vet

When I about 5 years old, my Grandmother went away on a trip. When I asked where she was going, I was told: "Buffalo". I cried for days afterwards, afraid for her safety. In my mind, Buffalo (NY) was a huge open space full of big, mean Buffalos. Eventually, my mother figured out why I was so upset, and set me straight.

Corina

When I was young I used to believe that we all lived inside the Earth. Not on it, but inside it, and that if we kept driving we would eventually hit a wall.

Anon

When I was younger my dad was in the military and we were stationed in Germany. I knew I was born in the USA and we used to live there, and my parents would talk about living back in the states. Having no understanding of geography, I always thought the moon was the other half of the earth, the half with the United States and airplanes took you back and forth.

Anon