The (sort of) malady goes by various terms:
- Imprecise navigator
- Direction challenged
- Lack of land navigation skills
- Poor spatial perception
- A non-existent sense of direction
As someone who is actually embarrassed by her “lack of land navigation skills,” believing I’m lost makes me physically ill. My heart rate ticks up, my blood pressure rises, I begin to think catastrophizing thoughts, and my stomach starts to cramp.
Growing up in a tiny PA town, I walked or biked everywhere. I knew every square inch of the town, so I didn’t know I had poor navigation skills.
That changed as I left 6th grade. Our school had an end-of-year event at Idlewild Park (still in existence today). My friend Rita Bowman and I sat together on the school bus on the way to the park, planning which rides we’d try first. We happily roamed the amusement park together for a couple of hours.
And then we met up with her parents and brothers who had driven to the park. She merrily waved goodbye as she left me to be with her family.
That had NOT been part of my plan. The panic set in. I realized I did not know where the bus had parked. Would I spend the night alone in the park if I couldn’t find the bus? I don’t recall exactly how the rest of the day transpired, but apparently, the story ended well.
In my early 20s, I was driving with my young niece in Pittsburgh. We were supposed to meet my sister at the Steeler stadium. I had precise directions. Well, I could SEE the road I needed to be on from the various overhead ramps I found myself on, but I could not figure out how to get there. I ended up parking my car behind a bar and taking the ferry to the stadium.
I recall car trips out West with my husband before electronic navigation tools were available. We had paper maps which I was unable to decipher. For instance, if Richard would call out, “Does I-90 lead directly to Bozeman?” I would gaze at the map as if the words had transformed into Arabic.
So the fact that my Subaru can use my phone’s Google Maps makes me feel both happy and relieved. I receive real-time information. “There’s a speed trap ahead.” “There’s a 7-minute slow down four miles ahead, but you’re still on the best route.”
Even though occasionally Google Maps is slightly off due to reconfiguration during ongoing road construction, it is one piece of technology that would be difficult for me to function without.
It turns out that those of us with a poor sense of direction panic for a good reason. Psychologists tell us that “losing our way” can be construed as a threat to our survival.
Experts say that awareness is key to not getting lost. Note where you enter in order to find a proper exit. Find an immovable landmark to help orient yourself.
Here is how I use this advice when I exit my car in a parking lot: As soon as I get out of the car, I take a 360° look around and mentally “place” my car in relation to something stable. For instance, at Walmart yesterday I noted that my row lined up with the “t” in the company’s name on the building. I made myself aware of which entrance I went in so that I could exit at the same one.
I don’t like to read or hear stories about people getting lost. I guess that’s why Hansel and Gretel turned me off as a kid. But that story DID give us a last piece of helpful advice: If you mark your trail to avoid getting lost, use something other than breadcrumbs.
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CBS Sunday Morning segment of a poor sense of direction
Really enjoyed this blog. I have always had a really good sense of direction. At 14 my 13 yr old sister & I got seperated from our family at the World’s Fair in NYC. No only did we successfully find the right subway, got off at the right stop – and got to see Elizabeth Taylor come out of the threater -, and got to our hotel an hour before the rest of the family. What an adventure!
Wow! You surely made the most of being lost! Thanks for sharing, Mary.
Thanks for the memory jog!!!!!
How many times I have been lost prior to Google maps and Waze maps!!!!!
I still have encountered being out of range and with night blindness, my 25 minute away visit to a friends home wound up becoming a three hour tour of Virginia trying to get home. No cellular either!!!!
A bit unnerving!!!!!!!! No more night trips for me!!!!
I do like my GPS! But this reminded me of a story.
I took my parents into DC for a day of fun. I couldn’t seem to get to the road I wanted because of one way streets. Mom said “you’re lost aren’t you? “ and I just calmly said, “no, I’m just not where I want to be.” 🤣 we ended up on embassy row and had fun looking around on my circuitous trip.
We truly are soul sisters! I am known to be the permanently lost one. ALWAYS. I started my lost journey early on, at age 8, by getting lost on the way back to our family vacation bungalow from a beach… in Spain… Could not speak the language, did not help that I cannot remember names… It took my parents hours to find me. I still remember the feeling of fear…
Who’s the REALLY smart woman in the Sunday paper that people are always submitting questions to, in hopes of finally getting them answered? Anyhow, years ago someone wrote her asking why men seemed to either never get lost or not lost so much that they panic. Are you ready for her answer?? Men, it would seem, have some sort of compass in their heads that always points NORTH. I, for one, don’t believe for one minute that she was joking!
One day as I was driving alone (pre-GPS), I became directionally confused, so I called my husband, asking if I needed to turn right or left when I got to such-and-such street. His non-sarcastic, and well-intentioned response: Is the Chesapeake Bay on the east side or west side of the state? I thanked him for his help, adding that it was of little value to me if I could not SEE the Bay (which was at least seven miles away in an unknown direction).
Reminds me of a question once posed to Albert Einstein: “Doctor, what’s wrong with men today?” He apparently puzzled his puzzler (thank you, Dr. Seuss) and responded: “Men simply don’t think.” While it is argued he meant mankind rather than men vs women, one cannot help but sometimes wonder…