When I was about 12, someone asked me for directions as he was going around in circles in his car. I gave him directions which I later found out was several miles in the opposite direction.

I’m 36 and I still think about this. I hope he found his destination…
Maybe he is still driving to this day.

so relatable lmao

I’m pretty much the same way with places I’ve lived where I had to drive everywhere. My current city though, 6 months after moving here (and 6 months of living car-free) I could give people detailed directions around a significant chunk of the city (the areas where I went).

Same when I moved to a different part of the city and started biking around that part of town.

So true hahah

I live in the suburbs outside Washington, DC. One evening, we were in Bowie, MD (east of DC) at a shopping center, and a woman asked us for directions to the Mormon Temple.

For those who are not familiar, the Mormon Temple is off the beltway north of DC. It’s 25 miles away, and right now - nearing midday - it’s showing a 34 minute drive. However, when this happened, it was the evening rush hour, so it was at least an hour away, probably closer to an hour and a half, honestly. It was a drive I wouldn’t want to make, if I could avoid it.

She didn’t believe us. My wife just headed into the store we’d been heading for. I tried to convince her some more, but eventually she just drove off to ask someone else. I wonder how that adventure ended for her.

The only thing I can figure for how she got so far off course: I think she started typing the address of the Mormon Temple (which is on Stoneybrook Drive in Kensington) into whatever map app she was using, and the app gave her a result on Stonybrook Drive in Bowie, and she went with it - the shopping center we were at is just off Stonybrook. Note they aren’t spelled the same, but I can understand overlooking that. Who knows where she started and how long she’d been driving already.

I use navigation to go to the grocery store.

It’s so funny, my kids split out exactly half and half, one half of them I could have driven to Miami before they realized we weren’t headed to school, and the other half, if I took a different route would scream “you are going the wrong way!”

My friends and relatives couldn’t believe that I didn’t know the route to my school or home. Apparently, it’s something you should just know after years of taking those routes even as a passenger. I didn’t know that it wasn’t normal for your brain to be constantly preoccupied with thoughts and that you should just be able to focus on things and remember them. It sucks living in a shithole where people either dont know anything about mental disorders or dont care that you have one.

I often get food delivery people asking if I know where X number apartment is in my building when I’m out walking my dogs. Man, I don’t fucking even remember my own number half the time. All I can say that if you’re looking for 1 but you’re way the fuck over by 120, you are on the exact opposite side of the complex that you need to be.

One day I was walking about.
Someone said “Excuse me, could you tell me where is (random street)?”
I was like “That sounds familiar, hold on a second.”
Looked it up from the map on my phone.
It’s literally the next street over.
It was about that time I decided people perhaps shouldn’t ask me directions if they value their time.

I’m definitely not with majority on this. Every city I’ve lived in, I can navigate decently well by major streets, highways, landmarks, etc. I think it came with the fact that I moved around so much growing up. I always want to feel like I know the area, so I’ll study a map for a couple hours whenever I first move in.

I’m not afraid to confess that I’ve given completely fabricated directions out of pure embarrassment.

“Yes, yes, just continue straight in that direction for a while and then turn left twice and you are there!”

Those poor souls…

I struggle with spatial awareness and memory and why wouldn’t I use the amazing achievement that is ubiquitously available GPS service and directions?

Sorry I don’t get out much.

Before we had stuff like Google Maps, or any digital navigation service really, nobody could then, either.

Even when asking someone for directions to get to where they live you get the wrong number of stoplights, turns, and so on. Street-names are also a gamble because maybe they (mis)remember that the street they commute on changed four years ago. I would wager that most folks are just not “wired” for this sort of task, and is why (shipping) pilots, trackers, and trail-guides are a thing.