From the first day I considered moving from my small{ish} town to a suburb of Washington, DC, I swore that I would “NEVER” drive in “the city.”  Of course, many people think of New York City as “the city” but around here, it refers to

[Lonely Planet]

Growing up in a small town and spending most of my life driving on roads where you may see 2-3 other cars with you at a given time gives you a certain kind of apprehension about driving in a city where there are a ton of people, even more pedestrians and even {gasp!} traffic circles. 

Even though the city is set up like a grid, I was always worried I would get terribly lost because I have zero directional sense.  I’m not kidding…zero.

Now, I drive into the city almost every work day and feel comfortable navigating around many places within it.  What changed my way of thought? 
Sure, some of it was just time.  Spending time in the city makes you just overall more comfortable being there. One of the biggest things though has been google maps optimization.

Google map has always been great.  I could look up just about anywhere I wanted to go and get turn by turn directions to get there.  It still didn’t totally get rid of the fear though because what would happen if I missed a turn?
Now, I have google maps accessible through so many different means that I never have that worry.  I can pull it up on my phone directly through the navigation app.  Or, I can pull it up on the browser on my tablet or phone.

Just the other day, a co-worker asked me to help her find a building across town.  I was so surprised at myself when I said sure and grabbed my stuff to go.  I guess I knew I wouldn’t have any problems as long as I had my phone and google maps to help me if I got turned around.

I guess you really should never say never…

I am participating in a blogger campaign by Bucks2Blog and was compensated. However, the views and opinions are my own. Oh, the prior fear of driving in the city was mine too.