A Risk-Taker, Adventurer, & Good Samaritan (I Am All Of These)

Today, as I was venturing out to see my counselor, I decided to try something I haven't done once since moving to the greater Raleigh area in September.

I attempted to drive downtown without using my GPS.

My lack of a sense of direction is legendary, having once gotten lost in my own neighborhood while looking at Christmas lights one year. Once my parents finally bought me my GPS, I was set. And by set, I mean hopelessly dependent.

I don't go downtown very often, due to my lack of social life & living in a suburb where there are enough things to do that it isn't necessary to always go to Raleigh. But when I do go downtown, I always use my GPS. In my defense, however, is the fact that downtown is ridiculously confusing & has atrocious parking, as well as some of the most rage-inducing driving I've ever witnessed.

Since the list of things I do on a weekly basis is relatively short, I don't usually have to worry about programming a bunch of addresses in very often; I just scroll through the list & boom! There's my destination! But today, I decided to cut the cord, if you will (& you will). Having been going to this particular place (actually, it's at my church's office where I'll hopefully be doing my internship eventually) long enough that I would essentially be borderline retarded at this point if I couldn't find it without my GPS, I embarked on my excursion.

Guess what happened.

I'm sure you're all guessing that I got hopelessly lost, because that's how almost all of my stories on here tend to be. If you guessed that I got lost then...

...

You're wrong. I got there just fine. In fact, I managed to find a parking spot directly outside the building that didn't require me to parallel park between two cars (I just had to back in because it was the first spot in that particular line). I was feeling mighty good about myself as I strutted down the sidewalk & marched up the stairs. That's when I was greeted by one of the interns.

It turns out my counselor was still on vacation & no one had told me.

On the plus side, this was a good experience because it forced me to try something I've been needing to do for a while. It also allowed me to help someone else, as another young man parked right behind me as I was walking back to my car. I told him to take my spot as I pulled up & he said it was ok, but I insisted that he should since I had only parked there about 5 minutes so he would basically have a free hour. He thanked me & took my spot.

Then I had to use my GPS to get out of downtown because it's different than how you get there.