I Gave an Old Man Directions

Need Directions? Don't Ask Me
I usually hate giving directions. I’m like the worst directions giver ever. I always stumble over my words and am a little too vague and end up sounding like I don’t know what I’m talking about. I’m a good navigator . . . for example if I have a Mapquest printout and I’m sitting in the passenger’s seat guiding the driver along during a long trip or something, I can do that. Or if someone gives me directions to someplace I’ve never been, I’m pretty good at following them. But if I’m the one who has to give directions, usually, forget it. But sometimes, teeny tiny opportunities present themselves in life where you’re able to prove yourself wrong.

Munchy Craving Turned Opportunity
Yesterday, after school, I went by a gas station convenience store to pick up a bag of Frito-Lay Ultimate Cheddar Mix Munchies. When I walked in, there was a stooped over old man with a drawn out map on a piece of yellow legal-sized paper, and it seemed that he was asking for directions. Several patrons tried to help him, but I guess didn’t know where he was talking about even though he had a map. The guy at the counter had a very hard to understand Indian accent, so the old man seemed to be out of luck.

When I got to the counter to pay for my Munchies, the poor old guy just looked so helpless, and one of the people in the store who had been trying to help him looked at me and said, “You from around here? Could you give him directions?” Oh, boy. You asked the wrong person. I looked at the drawn out map anyway, and saw that the man was trying to get to Ray Thorington Road. Oh, I know where that’s at, that’s on the way to the district campgrounds! I patiently explained where he needed to go. It was that easy! Then everything seemed to click in the old man’s mind, and before he left he said, “You know, if there were more people like you around, this world would be a better place.”

Awwww . . . (sniff, sniff). And I thought I was the worst directions giver ever.

Spanish word/phrase of the day: ayudar un viejo (ah-yoo-DAHR oon bee-AY-hoh) = to help an old man

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