When I was in college one of the things that I enjoyed doing was exploring the public transportation in Portland OR. This was a long time ago when it was safe to do so.
I did make a few mistakes however. Sometimes I would take the wrong train, and sometimes I took the wrong bus.
One time it was late on Saturday and I thought I took a bus that would take me back to station. Imagine my surprise when the driver stopped and said this was the end of the line. I showed him my map and he said that I had make a mistake and that there was nothing he could do.
Ok. I got off the bus in darkened neighborhood with only a passing familiarity of where I was. This was before cell phones and I had no friends or family in the area that I could call. I truly was alone.
Now this wasn’t the first time I was alone somewhere without any sense of where to go. Although I had my map I easily get lost and even though I knew the general direction that I had come, it was as vague as getting lost in the woods earlier.
I stopped and considered my options. I didn’t have a credit card or cash to get a taxi and I didn’t see any phone stands either. Without the sun I couldn’t orient myself in a direction, and on top of that there was no public transportation anywhere in miles the driver said. Don’t get mad at the driver. It wasn’t his fault I had made this silly mistake.
So once again I was lost, but this time it was a dark street in a run down neighborhood. Not where I wanted to be, but what choice did I have at this point?
I closed my eyes for a second and asked myself if I was future Brian, what advice would I give myself here? I choose a direction and started walking it, with no confidence I was helping myself go in a useful direction. I walked for a long time. So long in fact that the sun started to come up on Sunday morning and I could finally get a direction that I had been going.
As the sun arose like a miracle one of the public transportation hubs that I had taken earlier appeared. It would lead me back to my university. I eventually returned back to my dorm and my roommate wondered what happened to me. I explained that I had taken a wrong bus but that I was ok and nothing to worry about. I went to sleep.
I don’t know what leads me sometimes, but if I trust it, it has never steered me wrong.