“Turn up the music and sing along”
A strong sense of space, but a very poor sense of direction.
I have been driving for seven years and, knock on wood, I have never as much as scratched my car on the road. However, take my global positioning system (GPS) away and I am guaranteed to end up driving aimlessly into the dark on an endless highway with no exits or a gas station for that matter. As I have grown more self-aware, I have come to realise one of many valuable lessons the hard way. I have learnt that I am somebody with a strong sense of space but a very poor sense of direction.
Having given more thought to this new revelation, I began to think about its knock-on effect to other areas of my life. As somebody with a large inner world, it would be a lie to say that my five senses are sharply aware of my physical space at all times, but I am certainly well aware of the human interactions and the behaviour of people in my surroundings. As for the road, I have come along thus far and where I am headed, it has gone a little like this: I started off my journey, driving with certainty towards decided final destinations only to face unexpected circumstances repetitively leading me to locations I never intended to go to in the first place.
However, with the realisation that my destinations are out of my control, came some useful tools to better deal with life’s ambiguity. Taking shortcuts more often than not, have led me to the longest possible routes and a little patience goes far when the road moves painfully slower than anticipated. I have learnt that there are many roads to choose from; some short and easy, others long and difficult to exit, but a few lead us to discover new gems that we never would have found otherwise.
The roads are countless but our conscience can guide us and the ride is inevitable, but we steer the wheel and get to choose the passengers who ride along. But when the bridges are tucked away and the roads are blocked off, we can huff, puff and dwell over our choices or turn up the music and sing along to the ride.
- The reader is an Emirati marketing specialist based in Dubai.
