I "understood" on a basic level what pointers were when i was first learning programing as a 12-13year old. But I never understood HOW to use them, or manipulate them, or what functions you use to interact with them, or how to examine them, or how to declare them, etc etc. And since I was young I never got the opportunity to take an actual programming class that taught any of that throughout high school. By the time I got to college I went with Electrical Engineering instead of computer science and so my journey with pointers ended.

Now I do python and never have to think about pointers.