A teenage Elizabeth is pictured here with her younger sister, Margaret, during the middle of the war effort. Though she was only 13 when it began, she was always ready to stand by her mother in order to keep hope alive among the people of Britain.

In the summer of 1942, Elizabeth implored her father, King George VI, to allow her to take part in the war effort. He finally relented, and she began training for her future post.

While most little girls play at pretending to be princesses, Elizabeth knew from the start what the life of a royal was. Even so, she still seemed to enjoy the same games like other girls, especially when it came to pretending to be a grown-up.

Carrying a small, child-sized purse with a large ‘E’ embroidered onto the front, the young princess looks pleased to be demonstrating just how adult she is. Her baby sister Margaret, on the other hand, looks less than pleased.

From her earliest days, Queen Elizabeth has always been an ardent animal lover. She has been pictured embracing her various dogs over the years, a tradition that still lingers to this day.

The affection she holds for her pets is clear, especially given that her dog is seen below giving Elizabeth a kiss on the cheek. While dogs have long been popular in various royal courts, it might be safe to say that they are not just man’s best friend, but also the Queen’s.

Queen Elizabeth first met her future husband, Prince Philip, when she was only 13 years old. Despite her youth, the young princess had told those close to her that she had already fallen in love with the prince.

The two began a written correspondence, which blossomed into a full romance as the pair aged. The two planned to wed early on in their courtship, but the King requested that no official engagement be announced until Elizabeth was 21.

One of the challenges most children face is sitting still for portraits that their parents can then hang around their house. As a princess, Elizabeth was no exception, and she found even from her early years that she would have to demonstrate the patience constantly instilled in her in order to be captured on film.

Though this photo was originally taken in black and white, it was retouched with color in the last few years, bringing more life to Elizabeth’s childhood.

During Elizabeth’s army service, she was insistent on being one of the girls, undertaking the same tasks as the rest of her company, despite being royal. The biggest difference in her service is that she was the only one among them who continued to sleep at home, at least during her training.

Elizabeth distinguished herself upon enlisting as being the only female in the British royal family to serve as a part of the country’s armed forces.

When Elizabeth was just a small child, she began a lifelong love of the dog breed corgis. The small breed was a perfect fit for the young princess, as she could easily lift the dogs in her arms.

Elizabeth longed for a puppy of her own, but she wouldn’t get her wish until she was gifted a corgi, whom she named Susan, on her 18th birthday. Elizabeth held such affection for her dogs that she went on to create a canine dynasty.

One lesser-known fact about the Queen is that she took an active role in World War II, despite being a princess. Elizabeth joined the ATS and became a truck mechanic when she came of age in 1945.

Having trained as a truck mechanic, the Queen knew a thing or two about cars and motors and proved her expertise when she had learned how to change wheels, build and deconstruct engines as well as do a variety of small repairs on ambulances, transport vehicles and of course, drive them as well!

Being a royal with duties required by the government often meant for Elizabeth that she had less time than she would have liked to spend with her children. Though she would buck tradition, it seems, with regards to their raising, she held by the antiquated custom that placed the nannies firmly in charge of her children’s lives.

Even so, she is pictured here with Prince Philip and her two eldest children on a casual family outing.

When Princess Elizabeth was born, her parents had no inkling of what sort of future she would have, as she was only nominally third in line for the throne. They still expected her uncle to have children, who would then supplant any claims Elizabeth had.

Furthermore, until recent years, male descendants still had preference for taking the throne, so should Elizabeth have any brothers, the chance she would become queen would lessen even more. Instead, she was prepared for a life of leisure.

The joy Elizabeth’s parents felt upon her birth was palpable in the way they gazed at their tiny daughter. The parents were eager to set up as normal a life as possible for her, despite their royal titles, especially given that in her early years it was expected that Elizabeth would never ascend to the throne.

The family settled into a life that was seen as utterly normal for a child, despite the royal grandeur that set her life apart from others.

One of the major forces that shaped Elizabeth into the queen she would eventually become was her own grandmother, Queen Mary.

It was Mary who constantly pushed for Elizabeth to enjoy a more rigorous education, and once her father became the king, Queen Mary made sure a plan was implemented to lead Elizabeth towards becoming a well rounded and knowledgeable ruler. Queen Mary didn’t live to see Elizabeth on the throne, but she’d likely be proud of the queen her granddaughter has become.

Queen Elizabeth’s love of horses, much like her love of dogs, hasn’t lessened over the years. During the 1970s, the Queen had a rare quiet moment with her husband, during which they were able to go visit some of the beloved royal horses that live on the palace grounds.

Dressed down from her usual solid colored suits, the Queen still ops not to upset her hairstyle by covering it with a scarf in a pattern that matches that of her suit.

For every child who has been forced to sit through a photo shoot, there’s always one picture of their chubby arms grasping onto some sort of object in order to create a more interesting shot.

Seeing a baby Elizabeth clutching a necklace to her curls is a good reminder for everyone that even a princess can be coaxed into silly poses. As the royal princess aged into a queen, there would be many more photoshoots, but like childhood, she left the silly poses behind.

With the way the public follows every royal fashion choice Kate Middleton makes today, it’s no surprise that during the 1940s and ’50s, the masses couldn’t get enough of Elizabeth and Margaret’s fashion choices – from their gowns, to their shoes, to how they wore their hair.

The princesses here are dazzling a crowd as Elizabeth flashes her winning smile from underneath a magnificent tiara. Margaret’s hairpiece may not have the height, but its inherent elegance still shines through.

At 21 years old, Elizabeth was finally allowed to announce her engagement to Prince Philip, formerly of Greece and Denmark. The two posed separately and together for a series of engagement photos in 1947 that would later be shared more widely.

The public engagement was met with great fanfare, though there were still many who believed that Philip wasn’t an appropriate match for Elizabeth. Many also questioned his loyalties to England, but Philip was determined to prove those doubts wrong.

You can call it luck or you can call it duty, but due to Philip’s position in the Navy, the royal couple ended up taking not one, but two honeymoons after their wedding. Though their first was located in the woods of New Hampshire, the couple took a second honeymoon in Malta a year later.

Of course, the trip was half work and half play for Philip, who was there on assignment when Elizabeth came to visit.

Nearly a year after Elizabeth finally wed her love, Prince Philip, she gave birth to Prince Charles. Elizabeth was only 22 when she first became a mother, and the duties of being both a royal head of state and a mother would often conflict.

Even so, in Charles’s first days, Elizabeth was captured gazing lovingly at the baby who had been difficult to deliver. Though the Queen didn’t talk about it at the time, Charles was born via Caesarian.

In the early 1930s, Elizabeth sat for yet another photo shoot designed to capture the best of the young princess. Remarkably mature from a young age, Elizabeth proved popular with the people of England, even before she was the heir to the throne.

Showing off just what a big girl she is, she sat patiently, a small string of pearls around her neck, while she complied with the photographer’s request that she turn her cheek just so.

There’s little that could have charmed the English people more than seeing a toddler princess bundled in her bonnet peeking out from above her carriage in order to get a better look at the world.

Elizabeth’s signature wave wouldn’t quite be developed until she was a teenager, but it’s clear the seeds were planted, even from this tender age. Then again, when she was this young, Elizabeth was hardly even aware that she was royal, let alone that she was destined to become Queen.

As any elder sister is likely to do, a youthful Elizabeth is seen sitting on the grass playing with her younger sister, Margaret. The two princesses appear to be making some sort of bunny or other animal ears, though Elizabeth and Margaret both appear somewhat startled to find the camera intruding on their private game.

While the public loved any pictures of the precocious young princess, it seems then, as now, she wants the public only to see her on her own terms.

Like dogs, it’s always a good idea to ensure that children get fresh air every day. Though Elizabeth often found herself occupied with her royal duties, she did what she could to spend time with her children now and again.

Taking young Charles along with her for a walk in the park with one of her favorite corgis was a great way for mother and son to spend some quality time together while also getting in a little bit of exercise.

It took a lot of cajoling of her father before Elizabeth was able to join in with the war effort, but as she neared adulthood, it became harder for him to resist her pleas.

Elizabeth’s first major public effort was a radio address she gave at 14 for the BBC Children’s Hour, in which she expressed empathy for all of those who were displaced by the war. Although both Elizabeth and Margaret were sent to Windsor Castle for safety, that didn’t stop them from experiencing air raids.

Princess Elizabeth was rarely seen in candid photos enjoying her private life, but in honor of her Diamond Jubilee, a video was released with footage and stills from Elizabeth’s teenage years.

In this photo, the princess is seen riding in a car with her parents, sister, and of course, their pet corgi. It was refreshing to see Elizabeth acting like a regular teenager in her era, as she lounged outdoors with her family while knitting, chatting, and reading.

As a young woman, Elizabeth was captured sitting at her personal writing desk. Elizabeth had always been one to favor order and routine, even as a child.

Elizabeth was so regimented that she would even write notes following her swimming lessons, the most notable of which were written on the day her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated the throne, putting her next in line to be queen. Elizabeth often documented her days in personal journals, which has left an account of her thoughts on the events that changed her life.

When the war ended, the country was even more prepared to rally behind Elizabeth, especially after having seen just how much she participated in the war effort. It was a formative experience for her to be spending so much time with her own peers, which she didn’t often get to do as a princess.

On the evening of Victory Day, both she and Margaret wanted to experience the celebration with their people, so they blended into the crowds on the streets.

Before her father became king, Elizabeth’s parents took a more relaxed attitude towards her education, preferring that her lessons were short, and that a greater emphasis was made on play.

The princess was always deeply interested in equestrian and spent much of her energy on maintaining a routine with her horses. The moment Elizabeth became the heir to the throne, however, her education became a much more serious matter. Luckily though, the princess enjoyed her studies.

As lovely as summers are, they’re even better when you beat the heat in a breezy summer dress with a puppy in your arms. True to form, Elizabeth was captured here as a teenager clutching her dog as she gazed out into the summer sun.

The flower-patterned dress was captured in another portrait of her taken around the same time, though in the second photo, she has dressed it up with two rows of delicate pearls.

Family portraits have been a palace tradition for ages, even before they were done on camera. Of course, gathering the young children and getting them to pose for a few minutes became a significantly easier task once photography was involved.

In the past, however, children who posed for a portrait with their family had to spend days on end posing for the portrait while the artist rendered their likeness onto a canvas. That’s no easy task for a young child.

Queen Elizabeth II may not be the most unlikely of monarchs, though it was considered a long shot upon her birth in the 1920s. In 1952, Elizabeth was crowned the Queen of the United Kingdom upon the early passing of her father, King George VI.

Elizabeth was only 25 when she assumed the throne, but she has become one of the longest-reigning monarchs in history and has already surpassed the record of her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria, who reigned for 64 years.

Here’s Young Elizabeth as a child at the wedding of Lady May Cambridge and Captain Henry Abel Smith in a plush coat befitting her royal title. Lady May Cambridge was the daughter of Princess Alice, the Countess of Athlone and the Earl of Athlone, and he was the only surviving brother of Queen Mary.

The wedding between Lady May Cambridge and Captain Henry Abel Smith happened in October 1931. It was a country wedding at the village church of St Mary, Balcombe, Sussex.

The future Queen had a confident stride, even in her youth. You can see her look of determination and attitude of responsibility. Her she is walking in London in May of 1932. Because of her royal lineage, she often had to attend events with her parents and early on she grew accustomed to wearing appropriate attire.

Winston Churchill once described the princess when she was as young two years old as “a character, she has an air of authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant.”

Queen Elizabeth’s favorite residence is widely believed to be Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where she’s been going since she was a small child. In this photo, she’s seated in a horse-drawn carriage with her grandparents on the way back to Balmoral from church services. The Balmoral castle has been one of the properties belonging to the British royal family since 1852 when the grounds and its original castle were purchased by Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria.

It still remains in the ownership of the royal family and is not part of the Crown Estate.

Princess Elizabeth looks lovingly at her mother. It’s been a few years after her death, and many still have questions about Queen Elizabeth II’s mom, who was known as the Queen Mother. She was 101 when she passed on, surviving her husband by 50 years. It’s been estimated that over a million people filled the streets outside Westminster Abbey and along the route from London to her final resting place at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

Not much is publicly known about their relationship but it would appear that they had a solid bond.

A pair of royal sisters were captured posing on the rocks at the Royal Lodge in Windsor on one of their retreats. It was the Windsor home of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother from 1952 until her passing. The Queen Mother passed away at the Royal Lodge in March 2002, with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, by her side.

Since 2004, it has been the official country home of Prince Andrew, Duke of York and ex-wife, Sarah, Duchess of York.

The Queen and Prince Philip pose for a photo on their wedding day. The Queen rocked a stunning wedding dress with a 13-foot bridal trail designed by Norman Hartnell. Norman was a leading British fashion designer, best known for his work for the ladies of the Royal Family.

At the Queen’s request, the final design had a ‘sweetheart’ neckline, the fuller skirt with heavy, soft folds of silk embellished with varied embroideries.

Besides becoming the Queen of England and Head of the Commonwealth, Her Majesty also became a mother to four children, three boys — Prince Charles, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward — and one girl, Princess Anne. As you can imagine, raising four children and being a reigning monarch couldn’t have been easy.

When Prince Charles was born, Elizabeth had not yet become the Queen of England. But even so, she was often away from the Prince of Wales during his infancy.

Princess Elizabeth was photographed in her British Army uniform. Queen Elizabeth was a driver and truck mechanic for the Auxiliary Territorial Service, a women’s branch of the British army. At the time of the picture, she was a second subaltern, which is equivalent to a second lieutenant in the Auxiliary Territorial Service of the British Army. She achieved the rank of Junior Commander.

We can see her smile broadly while she was serving in the army.

After celebrating her son Charles’s first birthday, she went abroad and began spending long intervals of time away from him. After she was coronated in 1953, the Queen’s schedule became even busier and the Queen relied on their nannies to supervise the day to day lives of her kids during this time. Philip was also away for much of Charles’s younger years.

While Charles was just a young boy, his father went on a six-month Commonwealth trip after Her Majesty’s coronation. Nonetheless, he did have strong opinions when it came to how his son should act.

Even at an early age, Charles was extremely shy and often found himself getting bullied by other schoolboys. Believing that Charles was too sensitive, Philip sent his firstborn to his alma mater boarding school in Scotland called Gordonstoun. As Charles grew older, his relationship with his mother got even more complicated, especially after he married Princess Diana in 1981.

Like her brother Charles, Anne is believed to have experienced Philip’s tough parenting style. But she, unlike Charles, was much more extroverted and didn’t mind Philip’s “belittling” as much as her brother.

Going to prison is something that has a great effect on anyone, regardless of what reasons they were put in there to begin with. That’s probably because prison is an entirely different world than public society: everything is different, and not in good ways. When someone is finally released from prison, you may be surprised as to what things really stun them about returning to the regular world. That’s what this list is all about: what did they miss, what did they forget, and what did they get shocked by?

A lot of people don’t quite appreciate just how colorful the world really is until they’ve been locked away from it by prison. People don’t really realize just how colorless prison is: everything is a muted shade of gray, or white at best.

You forget about all the reds, blues, greens, yellows, and oranges. You don’t even realize that something as simple as the supermarket has almost every color available in the world. That kind of thing would stun or shock just about anyone who missed it for years.

Even a few years in a prison can put someone years behind in terms of culture and technology, since those things advance so quickly. Phones seem like a normal part of everyday life now, but just a few years ago, they weren’t nearly as prominent.

Imagine the shock of someone who went in when phones were still just hitting their stride, and coming out when they have become integral to almost every aspect of society. That kind of cultural advancement isn’t something that you would expect when you missed it all in prison.

It’s a weird way to think of prison but in a way it kind of works like time travel for the incarcerated. You go in when the Atari is a huge hit, and you come out when the PlayStation 2 is popular. For you, that would be a huge jump in technology that you would never expect.

Of course, it’s a really slow form of time travel: maybe it’s more akin to being in a time capsule. Things change in the real world much faster than people realize, mostly because they aren’t removed from that constant change enough to notice it.

You go to prison when TVs are still big boxes, and you come out when they are big, flat, and you can talk to them. Heck, some of them can even talk back to you! It’s just another jump to the future that someone in a prison would experience when they got out.

Throughout this list, you’ll encounter many individuals who were most shocked by the way technology advanced while they were put away. It really does evolve far faster than most people realize. After all, every year a new phone comes out. New cars too!

Going 15 mph may not seem very fast when you drive relatively frequently, but if you’ve been away from cars for some time due to prison, getting back in a vehicle would probably seem pretty amazing. Moving at any speed faster than a human can run would be exhilarating.

Of course, maybe it wouldn’t last very long once you got used to it again, but at least for a little while, it would be something you missed that excites you. There’s not much wrong with that since you should always enjoy your freedoms when you make it out.

When you haven’t been to prison, you don’t understand what types of things you would miss from regular living. You may not put a whole lot of thought into swimming, but there’s no swimming in prison. No pools, no lakes, no oceans, nothing. Not even baths. Nothing but showers.

It’s understandable why prisoners would miss being able to submerge themselves in water and embrace the freedom that it provides. It’s just one of those things you wouldn’t even know to miss until you couldn’t actually do it. A lot of things in life are like that.

OK, so one thing everyone knows about prison is that it has a lot of walls. But you don’t really realize how those walls affect your perspective once you finally get away from those walls. You almost get used to those walls, so much that it feels weird to not have them around.

It’s understandable why someone who was in prison would be shocked by the lack of those walls, by the lack of any sort of barrier that prevents you from doing what you want, when you want. It’s really kind of sad when you think about it for too long.

If there’s one thing that changes super fast, it’s the price of goods. Prices are always going up. You wouldn’t be aware of that when you’re in prison. You go in and prices are way lower than when you come out. You may even be inclined to think there’s a mistake somewhere.

It’s another one of those things you don’t notice when you are still actively in society. The inflation rates go up, but since it happens gradually, you just don’t notice. You don’t have that luxury when you’ve been in prison, removed from it all.

So there’s not a lot of choice when you are in prison. Everyone knows that. But in many ways, there’s truly no choice at all, especially when it comes to shampoo. You use what you get, and that’s about it. Sounds pretty rough, when you think about it.

Well, we suppose it’s better than one, but when you get out of prison, you suddenly find that there’s a lot more choice out there than you were used to. Sometimes, that choice is actually a lot more to handle than you would expect.

Do you like sleeping in the dark? Sleeping alone? Maybe you wouldn’t if you had spent several years sleeping with the light on and with other people nearby. It may actually be harder to sleep in the dark if you hadn’t done it in a very long time.

Of course, that’s something one could acclimate to over time, but it would probably be a bit of a hassle to deal with initially. At least finding somewhere to sleep with light isn’t a particularly difficult task to accomplish regardless of where you are.

While it doesn’t change quite as fast as technology or culture, landscape is also something that changes over time. If you are incarcerated long enough, the landscape you were used to when you went in may not exist any longer when you get out. Forests, open grass, small roads: it all changes.

It can be kind of sobering. After all, you lose a lot when the landscape of your past is destroyed. Take in the things around you while you still can: you never know when things will change, and you’ll miss something you used to have.

When you go to prison, you leave a lot behind. Family and friends of course, but also your car. What happens to your car when you are gone for a long time? Well, depends on how loyal that car is to you. In this case, a car hung on for six years.

Not only did it hang on, but it stayed in pretty darn good shape the whole time. Honestly, that’s pretty impressive, considering how often cars need maintenance to stay in shape. It’s even more impressive that no one stole it or broke into it.

We already talked about streaming video and whatnot, but few people keep in mind how much music has changed over the years as well. Spotify and similar music streaming services would be pretty revolutionary for people that weren’t used to them.

As we said, technology is something that blows a lot of minds when you’ve missed several years of advancement. Even if it is in something as simple as music and entertainment. Spotify is something a lot of people didn’t have before entering prison.

What else changes really quickly as time passes? The internet, of course. Few people realize how recently things like AOL and Hotmail and the like were prominent on the internet. Needless to say, those things aren’t very popular on the internet any longer.

So coming back from prison when things like Google, Bing, and who knows what else are prominent would be a pretty big change. Just like everything else that has to do with technology, as you may imagine. Prison really needs more technology, apparently?

When in prison, you don’t get a choice in very many things. Most of your life in prison is regimented and laid out for you, and you do what you’re told. So when you get out, your ability to make your own choices can be skewed. When you haven’t chosen anything for yourself in years…

…the sheer amount of things you can choose in regular society is much more staggering than most people even know. Making a choice between so many options can be very difficult when you’ve had no choice at all for such a long time.

As you may imagine, the healthcare system in prison isn’t exactly the best. That being said, many people don’t know they have problems or simply can’t afford to fix them when they are in prison. If the problem is eyesight-related, you’re usually just out of luck.

Until you get out, of course. Then you can afford a real pair of eyeglasses, and you can finally realize exactly how much you were missing all this time. We imagine that being able to see clearly after so many years really would be a shock.

When you go to prison for a long time… decades, even, there’s no limit to what can change in your absence. In the case of this poor man, what changed was his identity: or rather, his lack of identity on today’s modern network. With missing documents and broken family links, it’s like he never existed.

That’s a terrible thing for any human being and just goes to show that the passage of time is truly unstoppable when it comes to changing things. Even your identity isn’t safe. Even your existence could be called into question.

So of course new buildings are going to crop up when you are away from any civilized location for a long time. But you never really expect an entire skyline to just show up out of the blue, do you? That can happen when you are away for more than 25 years.

And yet, while some places change a lot, some places hardly change at all. Some places just don’t move at the same pace, either because they can’t, or they just flat out don’t want to. Honestly, it’s not so bad for that to be the case.

We talked about inflation once already, but you don’t really know how much has changed until you compare prices to what they used to be. For this guy, he realized how much money had changed when he went to Burger King, only to find the meal so expensive he was certain there was a mistake.

That said, it pays to understand that things haven’t gotten more expensive so much as the dollar isn’t as valuable as it used to be. That’s why it’s called inflation, and not something else a lot more disparaging. Remember all those stories from Grandad about how much milk used to cost?

You get to take showers in prison. It’s pretty much the only way to get clean around there. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be something surreal about getting to take a shower in solitude if you haven’t been able to do so for several years.

And that’s to say nothing about carpet. You don’t know how nice a carpet is until you go several years with nothing but concrete floors. That must be hard on the feet, shoes or not! We suppose it would be hard to keep the carpet clean in prison, but geez.

It would be an understatement to say that smartphones have become an integral part of everyday life. They are used for everything, from communication to entertainment to information gathering. Not to say you can’t get by without one, but it sure helps make life easier.

Going into prison before all of this became the norm would definitely make it a shocker when you get out. As the individual themselves said, it must seem very eerie to return to the real world to see everyone with a screen in their face.

It’s easy to get acclimated to things you experience every day. It’s also easy to lose that familiarity if you are away from something for a long enough period of time. Consider cars: it’s actually kind of unnatural to be carried around in a metal box, when you think about it.

Being away from that for an extended period of time, one could see how riding in a car could make someone feel sick or uneasy for several years after being released from prison. Being locked away in such an environment really takes a lot away from you.

It’s not a stretch to say that most people feel comfortable in Walmart. It’s a pretty normal part of society, after all. But imagine being uncomfortable and uneasy there. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched of a situation for someone that hadn’t been in a large Walmart for several years.

Having that much space, and that much stuff, would surely weigh on the mind of someone who has been forced to live without it for quite some time. At least, we would certainly assume so, based on this story from this individual who experienced it themselves.

Minecraft may still be a very popular game, but for the most part, people have gotten over the hype and craze it had back in the day. Of course, if you had never seen it before due to being in prison for sixteen years or so, it would probably be pretty mind-blowing.

As we’ve said before, prison is kind of like a time capsule: when someone is finally released, their knowledge of general culture and technology is almost certainly some ways behind what is currently applicable. Prisons should probably do a better job of keeping their inmates up to date.

Depending on your level of communication with the outside world during a stint in prison, it may be shocking to learn that the people you knew have changed. Some have moved states, others may not even be around, and everyone has certainly gotten older.

Coming back to your kids, your friends, and even acquaintances to see each of them living vastly different lives than when you left would be hard to swallow for anyone. Communication with the outside world is critical to avoiding this kind of situation.

You know things are bad when someone from prison believes that people in regular society are ruder than those within prison walls. When the incarcerated have better manners, maybe there’s a problem that needs to be addressed in how society treats each other.

Well, not to say everyone is rude, but even so this story is a bit shocking to read, solely because most people probably don’t even realize how rude everyday life really is. A bit of introspection may go a long way in that respect.

The law of the land in prison is quite a bit different than it is for regular society. So if you were trapped in that environment for so long, it’s understandable that you would forget just how different things are on the outside. Acceptable behavior, communication, things you can say out loud: it’s all different.

There’s definitely a learning curve to getting back into society, no matter what anyone says. Even the small things could be pretty difficult to come to grips with initially, though people who haven’t been in that situation probably wouldn’t understand.

YouTube is part of everyday internet life now. But it wasn’t in 1995. So someone who went under in 1995 would probably be blown away by how huge and popular it is today, or even how much can be found on YouTube in general. The way the internet has evolved in recent years is crazy.

It seems normal to us, who have been around to see it all happen, but for people who have been incarcerated for more than a decade, the change is pretty massive and probably really hard to wrap one’s head around, all things considered.

At some point in the past, you could actually fill your car with gas and only pay for it after the fact. Those times of trusting people to do the right thing are long gone, but someone who was in prison for a long time would probably be surprised by that.

And that’s to say nothing about actual gas prices. They’ve gone up a ton since the old days, and that’s probably something that would catch a recently released prisoner off guard as well. Too bad gas prices are only likely to increase from here.

Payphones: nowhere to be seen for many, many years now. But once again, if you go into prison before payphones were replaced, then suddenly having no payphones anywhere would probably be really wacky. Subtly creepy, even. This does raise questions as to how long prison sentences are.

Of course, some crimes warrant serious punishments, but you’d think there would be some sort of way to ensure prisoners could keep up with the way the world around them is changing. After all, being separated from things for so long can’t be healthy.

Self-checkouts at stores are something we take for granted these days. They are extremely convenient and we all like using them, but they are actually pretty recent in terms of being used in a widespread manner. That being said, someone who missed their implementation would probably be enthralled by them.

Sometimes it is easy to forget just how much our society has evolved in terms of convenience and technology. It wasn’t all that long ago that things were significantly different, with far less usefulness for each of us as citizens. Time flies.

You know, it’s only within the last decade or so that the notion of touching a screen had any value or merit to it. In the past, people would be confused by the notion of touching a screen to accomplish anything, other than whacking it to get it working.

So coming out of prison to find that touch screens are now a major part of technology across the board. It would certainly be a surprise to find that you didn’t need remotes or buttons for things nearly as much as you needed to in the past.

Do you ever think about how automatic sinks and paper towel dispensers may actually seem pretty advanced and far-fetched to people from an older generation? Well, the same is true of people who have been in prison for some time. Something that simple could seem very futuristic.

Of course, you may be able to find something like that in some prisons, but if they were underfunded, then probably not. Underfunded prisons probably miss out on a lot of technologies that other ones manage to keep tabs on.

You know what people really take for granted? The opportunity to go to the bathroom in complete and total privacy. You don’t know how much you miss something like that until you don’t have access to it. Imagine not being able to go to the bathroom for as long as you want, as privately as you want.

Needless to say, many prisoners would probably be enthralled at the idea of having access to that again. They probably wouldn’t even realize how much they missed it until they actually had a chance to do it again. Appreciate what you have.

For someone who went to prison back when phones were big indestructible bricks, having a small, sleek phone with a robotic female voice that can answer your questions and directs you around the web must seem like the stuff of science fiction.

Honestly, thinking about what phones are really capable of today, even we are inclined to be amazed by what they can do and how much they’ll be able to do in the future. Heck, some phones fold in half now, screen and all! It’s crazy, right?

When people in prison think the outside world is scarier than where they are, you may want to think about some of society’s problems. We all know the news talks about scary things, but really, that’s kind of a harsh reminder of just how scary and bad things can really be.

We don’t blame anyone for wanting to lock themselves away at home, all things considered. Even if they spent a bunch of time in prison, it may seem like a safer, more reasonable thing to do than actually going out and about in the free world.

Arrows on stoplights are something that seem to be omnipresent. We actually don’t know when they became the norm, but apparently, there are some people that were in prison long enough to remember a time when stoplights didn’t have those arrows.

Taking that into consideration, we would actually be curious to know when those arrows started being implemented into the majority of traffic lights. Maybe that poor guy was just in prison for a particularly long time. It’s the best explanation we can think of.

You can start cars these days without having to actually turn a physical key. You can often just press a button and start a vehicle, so long as you have the key fob with you. For someone who was used to the more classic way of car startup, we could see it confusing them.

At least this is the kind of technology that one could easily pick up on, if they just got used to it first. Still, the way cars have changed over the years is something that would shock a prisoner who has been away from the world for some time.

When you eat food that really isn’t all that great for a long time, you may think that the first thing you want to do upon returning to freedom is to eat something nice right away. However, your stomach may not agree with that, considering what it’s used to.

You have to acclimate to a certain type of food again if you really want to be able to enjoy it. It may take some time, but that’s the reality when you’ve been fed poorly or with low-quality food for any decent amount of time. Appreciate all the good food you can.

Sometimes, the age you went into prison has the most effect on what shocks you the most when you get out. If you go on in young, there may be some things you didn’t have the chance to learn first: like how to date and have healthy relationships.

And as you may imagine, that’s not exactly a topic of much import in prison, so you certainly won’t learn it there either. Coming out without what many would consider is common knowledge is certain to be a shock for anyone.

We’re going to give it to you straight: if you remember Blockbuster, you’re getting up in years. Technically, you’re old as far as modern culture is concerned. Netflix, while technically being quite old itself, is much closer to modern levels of streaming technology.

For someone who went to prison before Blockbuster went out of style, it would probably be a bit of a shock to see it all gone in favor of Netflix and other streaming services. Of course, streaming is a lot easier and more convenient, so that’s good.

When you lose some of your lifespan to prison, you never know what will shock you. It could even be something as simple as Legos. Even Legos have changed a lot over time, becoming a lot more complicated than they used to be. Some people may be surprised by just how much.

That said, we certainly won’t complain about Legos becoming more advanced and fun to play with. Creativity can make fun things out of basic bricks, but having more interesting basic blocks really allows for people to make even cooler things.

If you’ve gone to jail and successfully made it back out, chances are you don’t really want to go back again. That being said, you may be wary about which things could potentially do that to you. We wouldn’t blame anyone for being a bit paranoid, all things considered.

It must be hard to have that reminder of imprisonment looming over one’s head all the time. Then again, maybe it helps convince people that they should stay out of trouble when at all possible. Going to prison isn’t worth it.

Cars used to have a much boxier, angular design. Just look at anything from 1970. However, general car design has changed a lot since then. Just take a look at anything made after 2010. Point being, someone who wasn’t used to these types of designs may be surprised by them.

After all, when you miss the gradual change from one design philosophy to the other, it’s pretty understandable that you would be shocked by the sudden jump: and probably ask yourself just what else you missed while you were away from the world.

Nature goes mostly unappreciated by people who can see it every day. But imagine not being able to see it for years on end. Imagine that prison walls are you can see. No mountains, no oceans, no great wilderness… it’s no wonder that some people would find nature the most shocking part of their return.

The colors, the sights, the sounds and the smells: all of these are things that anyone who was locked away in prison for any significant amount of time. People should really be a lot more grateful for the things they can experience every day.