[nabs-l] A Couple More Travel Questions...

Kerri Kosten kerrik2006 at gmail.com
Tue Dec 10 04:05:47 UTC 2013


Hi Everyone:

First, I want to thank everyone for responding to my last post a
couple of weeks ago. You have no idea how much your responses helped
me. It truly made me feel better and encouraged me to know I am not
alone and others struggle as well. Your responses also made me think
about a lot of things, and made me realize how I could push myself
more.
I have a couple more questions. One thing I worked hahrd on in
training but still majorly struggle with is mental mapping. For me,
mental mapping is thinking about and really paying attention to where
I am going and the turns I make.
What often happens though is that if I am in a restaurant or somewhere
I will do well mental mapping part of where I need to go but will
forget one little detail. Then, because of that one little detail I
forget I will often get lost.
For example, if I am in a restaurant and I follow the hostess to my
seat I will often forget a turn or something and will get lost when
trying to find the door once it is time to leave.
Another example is if I am somewhere and I try to find the bathroom
often I will find the bathroom and then mess up getting back and find
myself lost unable to find my seat.
Or, I will go somewhere with someone and when we arive they will give
me good directions and I'll again remember most of it but then when it
is time to leave I will forget one little turn or thing and I'll go
the wrong way.
This makes me feel very embarrassed and awkward. I wish I had better
mental mapping skills and these types of things didn't happen. I
realize travel is not perfect, but I think in my mind I still feel
awkward and embarrassed when I get lost or don't know where to go.
Do others struggle with this mental mapping thing? Is it common to
forget one little thing when you aren't familiar with somewhere and
get lost?
What do you do in these situations and how do you keep from feeling
negative about them?
When I was in training if this happened the next day I would have
another travel class and would do something else and so would easily
move on and make up for whatever mistake I made the day before.
However, now that I don't get nearly as much practice and
oppportunities, when I don't do well mental mapping I feel negative.
Do you just have to tell yourself you will try harder next time and
laugh it off?
Another thing I struggle with is when I go to say a basketball game or
the mall or somewhere by myself sometimes I want/need someone to show
me where something is and or walk me to my seat and other times if
something is nearby I just want to get directions and try to
explore/find it on my own. I notice when I try to ask people to give
me directions though they often insist I walk with them or they take
me to where I am trying to go. This is sometimes fine, but I think it
would help my confidence a lot if sometimes I could just get
directions and try to go on my own.
When I was in training if i asked directions and the person wanted to
take me I would say"I am sorry but I am in training. I'm supposed to
just get directions."
However, now that I am not in training anymore when I try to ask for
directions and the person insists on taking me or walking with me I
don't know what to say. I'm not in training anymore so...
How do you handle this? Should I say something like "Actually, thank
you but I am trying to work on some skills I learned. Please just give
me directions."
What do you say to people so you can just get directions?
Thanks,
Kerri




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