Directionally Challenged

When I was younger, I was labelled “directionally challenged.”  

By that I mean I was not adept at getting from point A to point B.  If I was given the task of commuting outside of my “sphere of influence” -- as my dad used to call it -- I would render myself helpless.

This lacking skillset was assigned to my genetic predisposition and who I was as a person.  I was “just not good at geography.”  Nevermind that there was no reason for me to be good with navigation.  

Every day, I was sentenced to go the same place at 9am and come home at 3:30pm.  My parents would then drive me to hockey or baseball somewhere in/around Toronto at 7pm and bring me home at 10pm.  As I turned legal drinking age, I learned how to get to a few bars downtown, but not much else.  

I didn’t understand directions because I was given no incentive or responsibility to learn. My life was a slow, repetitive grind of public schooling and sheltered avoidance for most of my youth and teenage years.

Things have changed over the past two years, however.  Now, I find joy in knowing my way around the city.  I love learning about the history of different streets, highways, and neighborhoods.  Because the more I understand about my surroundings, the more capacity I have to bring value to others, and to be versatile and adaptive.  I get excited when strangers or friends ask for directions and I am able to help, when in the past I would invariably shrug my shoulders and move on.  

After all, transportation is the lifeblood of free enterprise.  If there is no movement of goods and services, grocery store shelves don’t get stocked, our hunter gatherer ancestors get selected out, and civilization does not advance.  

In part, this newfound passion was borne out of necessity.  Working as a door to door and business to business sales rep for over a year, one needs to know how to get to Burlington one day and Richmond Hill the next.

But at a deeper level, it’s a result of taking responsibility for my life and surroundings.  It’s about understanding that there is a bigger, better, and more expansive world than the one I was confined to from a young age.  

If there is a part of your true self that was not nurtured or recognized as a child, please understand that the gravity of your past does not determine the flight and brightness of your future.  New passions and gifts are always accessible with a dose of new challenges, a hearty serving of responsibility, and a dash of courage.