Last night I exited the women’s restroom at the mall only to find myself in the men’s room. I just went the opposite way of the intended path and wondered why a man was pulling down his zipper? Alas, one of the sad facts of living with Directional Dyslexia. I swear it is a condition, one I have had since birth.

In the past I have sworn up and down that I know where I am going, only to find I have walked in the totally opposite direction in NYC, driven on a one-way the wrong way in DC, and ended up backtracking in England on roads littered with roundabouts. Thankfully, someone was always with me to help me find my way back. My little sister, college friends and a polite police officer on Capitol Hill, and my 13-year old daughter. Just a few renowned examples.

It’s happened enough that I don’t even get embarrassed anymore. Often I just go in the opposite direction of what I think and am rewarded with finding my car where I parked it. Perhaps that’s why I landed in Colorado? With the mountains to the west I am usually just fine. And cities that people think are confusing with their wonky streets? I have no problem there.

GPS takes over where instinct is lacking. Yes, I have taken the road less traveled, but not always intentionally. Great poem, Mr. Frost.

The Road Not Taken 

BY ROBERT FROST

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.