"Directionally challenged"

I have heard that there are people who have a "natural sense of direction." These people, never, from what I understand, get lost. I am amazed by this phenomenon because to me having that ability is the equivalent of having a super power.

I, as you may have guessed by now, am not one of those people. If I attempt a trip that goes beyond a twenty mile radius from my house I'm as good as lost...guaranteed.

I don't know why I can't process and follow directions. I honestly am a relatively intelligent individual, but I just simply can't do it. The following is an example of just how severe my direction deficit is:

When one of my former students moved to Winder, Ga, I made several trips there to see him. The first one was for his high school graduation. I called and got interstate directions from a friend of mine, who happens to live there.

I was lost before I could get out of Dekalb county and I live in Henry county. For those of you who may not know, these two counties are located next to each other. I got lost, not because the directions my friend gave me were bad, in fact, they were perfect, I just managed to screw them up.

Warning to others: If you are not in the correct lane on I-285, far in advance, you will miss the exit for I-85 north, and end up on Buford Hwy. where everything is written in a foreign language.

Yes, that is exactly what happened to me. I called my friend back, and he was, thank God, able to put me back on track with just a few turns.

When I made it to Winder, the school parking lot was full, so I parked at a church close by and walked to the school stadium. I will say that I was relieved to have arrived on time.

Everything was great until the ceremony ended and I got into my car to leave. I suddenly realized that the school officials and local police were directing traffic out one way, and you guessed it, it was not the way that I had come in.

Panic sat in, because now, not only had it gotten dark, I was being sent down a road to who knows where, all the while thinking in my mind, this is definitely going to be a problem.

I immediately flipped my phone open and called my friend. I explained the situation and he helped me out again, staying on the phone with me until I was back on the interstate and headed in the right direction.

It was 1 a.m. before I got back home. I left Winder at 9:30 p.m. I live about an hour and a half away from there, if that helps to put things in perspective for you on just how bad I am.

The next time I decided to make the Winder trip, I contacted my friend via email, and asked him for new directions, this time using back roads. I wanted to try a new route, because even though, it had been about a month since my last trip, I was still feeling a bit traumatized.

He sent me written directions, and I followed them to the best of my ability. I did make it to Winder, but became lost somewhere down Hwy 53, where I can assure you, that dark means dark. I did the usual phone a friend for help thing , but this time he didn't answer.

I called repeatedly and still no answer. At this point the word panic didn't begin to cover it. I called my husband for help but in my state of alarm I didn't realize that I would actually need to know where I was exactly before he could give me any google map help.

I had no clue where I was. I hung up the phone, took a few deep breaths, and preceded to go up and down Hwy 53 like a carnival duck. I finally kept going in one direction long enough to find a little store where I found three men, who were Winder locals. They were very kind, and able to point me in the right direction. All in all I was lost for about an hour.

Using my same back road directions I have gone to Winder at least 4 other times and managed to come into town on a different road each and every time, making at least 2 other calls to my friend for help.

I am sure that when I let him know I had gotten navigation on my cell phone it was cause for a celebratory event at his house. He is a wonderful and patient man......I know this because I am sure if he wasn't I would have gotten a recording by now saying this number has been changed to an unpublished number. Lord knows I wouldn't have blamed him.

I'm not sure why I have such a poor sense of direction, but I'm not as concerned as I use to be about it. I mean surely between cell phone navigation, Google maps, and good friends I'll always get where I'm going...if not...I'll just see lots of places I never planned on seeing......I am going to try to stick with day trips whenever I can........Dark like you find on Hwy 53 adds an extra stress factor that a lost person such as myself just doesn't need.......