Don't Drive Your Car Into the Lake and Other GPS Lessons Learned
by Mary Rose Remington

I met ‘Sophia’ this past Mother’s Day. My husband introduced us, actually, and thought we might hit it off. Sophia was black, small, really knew her way around town and despite the fact that she had a bizarre accent that made it hard to understand her at times, we became fast friends. She even agreed to ride with me to work the next day. As I made my way across town for a client appointment, Sophia offered me the choice of several routes, including the fastest way to get there, the shortest route and how to get there with minimum use of the freeway. Sophia even told me where the nearest coffee shop was so I could grab a cup of coffee.

Since we had just met, and I wasn’t 100% certain I could trust her, I asked Map Quest for directions, too, and printed them out just in case. I was zipping along the highway making good time until suddenly Sophia directed me to “Take a U turn when it’s safe.”
“Excuse me?! How exactly does one take a U turn safely on the highway?” I yelled in frustration back to Sophia.

With the same blank look and monotone voice, she once again encouraged me to take a U turn when it was safe. I ignored her and secretively glanced at my Map Quest directions. Sensing she had competition, Sophia quickly recited “recalculating” and within seconds she told me to take a right hand turn at the next intersection and proceeded to guide me safely to my destination.

How Sophia Works

You’ve realized by now that ‘Sophia’ is my new GPS, a gift from my husband who knows how directionally challenged I am. GPS stands for Global Positioning System, a worldwide radio-navigation system formed from a network of satellites placed into orbit by the US Department of Defense in the 70’s. Although originally intended for military use, they were made available to us civilians in the 1980’s. A GPS device uses the satellites as reference points and can calculate positions accurately down to a matter of meters. The GPS devices use the coordinates, and places them on electronic maps, which have varying rates of accuracy and perfection.

Not Perfect

A recent episode on The Office demonstrated the down side of a GPS. Michael goes on an excursion with Dwight and rents a car with a GPS. Michael follows the voice command that instructs him to take a right, and drives straight into a lake.
While I haven’t heard of anyone around here being led into one of our 10,000 lakes by their GPS, I did hear a local radio show host admitting her GPS is stuck, and insists on taking her to “some ladies house in Cottage Grove that I don’t even know” every time she gets in the car. A neighbor of mine said she’s been trying out her husband’s GPS from work but reports, “She seems to have something against 494, because she keeps giving me directions that make me drive around it.” To err pertains to more than just us humans, I guess.

Lessons in Life

I grant you this, Sophia is smart, much better at directions than I am and – for the most part – has been accurate. However, I have needed to remind myself more than a few times that I’m the ‘large and in charge’ one, not her. With hands firmly planted on the steering wheel, I have the final say. Or steer.

‘Sophia’ asked me to share these valuable life lessons with you.

1. There is almost always more than one way to get to a destination.
2. You don’t always have to know exactly where you are going in order to begin a journey.
3. Help is almost always available when you get lost.
4. Real men can indeed ask for directions.
5. When someone tells you to do something really stupid (e.g. driving into a lake), don’t do it! Trust your common sense.
6. When you find yourself going the wrong direction, you can ‘recalculate,’ implement a course correction and make a U turn when it’s safe.
7. Not every trip needs to – nor should be – made in the fastest possible time.
8. There’s a time to embrace technology and the help it provides, but there are also times to shut devices off, and rely on your own inner compass.

Mary Rose Remington, M.S.Ed is a local career counselor and life coach, motivational speaker, freelance writer and author of Career Quest, a Practical and Spiritual Guide To Finding Your Life’s Passion. More info at www.maryremington.com or 651-457-1302.

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