Spatial Relations

I’m not good at spatial relations. My brain just doesn’t work that way. When I use a map, I have to turn the map the actual direction I am driving, often times turning the map upside down. Remember those problems in math class where there would be a freeform geometric shape and you were asked to rotate it 90 degrees and draw it? I could spend hours, literally hours, staring at something like that and never figure out how to draw it correctly. My new car has remote keyless entry. I’ve had the car for 3 weeks and I still get confused about which button opens which door.

Yesterday, Derek and I had a conversation about it and he said “Megan, just remember that the driver side door is on the left.” Yeah, good idea except that I sometimes confuse my right and left. And that nice trick where you make an L with your thumb and index finger? Forget it. I can’t really tell which one is right. It’s not like I can’t tell which way is right and left, I just have to stop and think about it. I don’t want you all to think I am totally dumb because I’m really not. I just have a hard time with spatial relations. That’s why I married Derek. He’s a whiz at that kind of thing.

All that being said, I fell like I have overcome a huge hurdle regarding this issue. As I am sure you can imagine, looking at directions and building furniture is something I am just not good at. I never get it right on the first time, and it takes me hours just to put together a simple bookshelf. Since we moved into our house 2 weeks ago, I have successfully put together two drawer units for Logan’s room, 2 kitchen chairs from Ikea (which is like the ultimate build-it-yourself furniture), two kitchen tables (the first we ended up having to return), a key rack/shelf thing, a shoe rack, and this piece of furniture (which I am also staining…that’s a whole other issue!)

And you know what? I am getting good at this! With the excetion of one chair that I put together backwards, I got all this stuff assembled on the first try. I am so proud of myself!

But my keyless entry still confuses me.