If you think you've 'got' something and then months or even years later realise that what you thought you'd 'got' you finally now 'get'...

So now you feel like you never really had it...?

Is that an accurate assumption?

To have gotten 'something' you had to (at that time) been paying attention. Attention enough for it to register in your mind...

If it registered or resonated then it was likely important to you... 

Over time you learned more and will have observed more implications and consequences... It may spring up in different contexts where you'd not considered it before, even if you was just reminded of that initial idea...

Along the way as you piece things together you may encounter that moment of realisation...

You didn't just get it finally there and then...

It was a process.

You developed a more nuanced model that eventually emerged in your consciousness into that AHA...

Yes. To most this process is invisible...

Learning is not binary...

Sometimes we're exploring the outer conditions, roots, Trunk, branches and leaves...

Have you ever read a book twice and it seems like you're reading a different book... ?

It seems different because you're now different...