Men, learn to ask for directions when lost

I went for an out-of- town road trip with a male friend and what was expected to be a relatively short excursion turned into an annoying lengthy journey simply because my friend - who is not a Kenyan native - utterly refused to stop and ask for directions.?I spent the better part of the trip wishing he would stop and ask some- one how to get to our destination. We got lost a couple of times and he still would not ask for help. His poor sense of direction must have added up to an hour to our journey.

It was not the first time I had endured a delay in getting to a destination while on the passenger seat in a car with a man who would not ask for directions.

A couple of years back, my then boyfriend once drove twenty minutes in the wrong direction just because he didn’t want to ask for directions or check Google maps. There was an important game he wanted to catch but even that wasn’t enough motivation to ask for help. I have also gotten into arguments with many boyfriends over directions. Men, what is up with that, why won’t you ask for directions?

It is ridiculous! When you don’t know something, the rational thing to do is ask for help. However, men’s instinct doesn’t allow it. They would rather waste time and fuel than admit they are lost and need help. As they say, men don’t get lost; they just take a different route. It is stupid pride.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with admitting that you are lost and need directions. Nobody will think less of you. The female on your passenger seat won’t think of you as less of a man for asking for directions. We understand your need to feel self-sufficient but for crying out loud, it is stupid to drive around aimlessly because you don’t want to ask for help.

The pig-headedness is astounding. It lies to them to the effect that asking for help makes them less of men. It all boils down to the fragile male ego. No man is going to ask for help from someone who clearly knows more than he does. Men can’t stand being told what to do.

They want to win. They want to emerge victorious all on their own. They are going to soldier on even if it means driving up and down the same stretch of road ten times until they get the direction right.

This ego still makes them not read an instructional manual when they don’t know how to do something. They have adopted the archaic learning through trial and error. But to them, using a manual, just like asking for directions, is akin to admitting

defeat. Here is what every woman who has had to sit quietly while they got lost would like to say to men: Stop worrying about what other people will think of you and just ask for directions. Is it so hard to save your- self the hassle by asking?