Aug 11, 2020 3 min read

What a week. I wasn’t even really sure that only a week had passed.

I spent most of my waking hours at work last week, performing training and trying to stay caught up on my own duties while a couple of my coworkers are on vacations or out sick. I started early and stayed late – something a lot of our production workers do regularly – but by Friday, I was feeling it.

I spent the better part of the week working out of an office at our alternate location, helping to train a new employee and guiding long-term employees in how to help her once I’m back at my own desk. She is bright and capable, and I have high hopes for her.

The largest problem I had this week was the actual “getting to work” part. I’m certain that I have previously shared how directionally challenged I am, and how panicked I become when I know I’m lost. How my GPS was by best traveling companion before the map app on my phone was discovered. How I once drove the wrong direction on the interstate for miles before realizing I had chosen to drive west instead of east and I was headed to Iowa instead of home.

Haven’t read that last one?

Well, that’s a story for another time, I guess.

This week I was only “traveling” across the county, not the country. Still, the fastest route took me through some deep country, down many windy roads and across several hills. Much of said route is sparsely populated by either people or distinguishing landmarks. Throw in the fact that I traveled in the dark every morning, and I was relying on a mixture of technology and God’s grace to get me safely there.

For the first couple of days, I left that office and continued to my other office to finish my days. That route is well known to me, and of course, so is the way home from my standard place of employment. On day three, I was able to finish my day where I started, so I instead headed home directly from our second plant. It never crossed my mind to turn on the map app to get home, as I hadn’t needed it before to get home. About a mile or so down the road, I realized my error when I came to the first intersection.

I didn’t know which way to go.

Unfortunately, there is not much cellular signal in those deep woods, so I collected myself and tried to remember which way I turned onto that road that morning. I made a choice and drove a little way, all the while looking at my surroundings for anything that looked familiar.

There was nothing.

After a while, I guessed that I had probably made the wrong choice and turned around. I saw a row of pine trees and wondered if I had passed them in the dark any morning previously. After a near panic attack, and another couple of wrong choices, I finally saw something I recognized.

Three bars of service on my cell phone.

I pulled over and punched in my address in the maps app. Then, much more confidently, I pulled back onto the road and headed home.

And the next morning?

I paid a lot more attention to my surroundings in addition to the directions my phone gave me.