A Woman, a Story & a Life In-Between – GPS Navigation

I’d be lost without my phone’s GPS Navigation app. Aside from being a brilliant pun, it’s also true – because I have the worst sense of direction of anyone I know. On more than one occasion, I’ve gone into a store in a shopping mall, come back out, and had no idea the direction in which I‘d been heading. Part of me wants to think my poor navigational skills are actually a result of having GPS available to me, in the same way it can be harder to do simple math in your head once you’ve gotten accustomed to using a calculator. Sometimes, though, it’s still hard for me to really trust my GPS. This past weekend it led me into a “holler” and I drove up and down a winding country road until I realized I was on a snow-covered hilltop. At this point I was fairly sure my smartphone was leading me into an ambush, but I arrived safely down the other side of the mountain and at my destination. I read an article several years ago in which scientists had discovered homing pigeons were actually ignoring their natural instincts and following man-made roads to get around. I guess that makes me feel a little better about being directionally challenged. If working smarter – not harder – is good enough for the birds, then it’s good enough for me!

– Tiffany Blair, LBSPY #24 (Jan 14-28)