Would it be okay to call myself "directionally challenged" in my common app essay?

Hi guys,

I’m writing my common app essay about a time I got lost and I’m really bad with directions so I wanted to use that phrase to create a light-hearted feel. But I am afraid that it might offend the reader. The last thing I want to do is offend my admissions officer… Should I just avoid using it? What do you guys think?

P.S. sorry if it’s a dumb post

I think it’s a funny and light-hearted term (and one that I’ve used about myself). It doesn’t strike me as being potentially offensive at all.

I agree - perfectly fine, especially if it’s tied into an amusing anecdote!

I use that expression, as well as vertically challenged (i.e., short) all the time.

My mother was directionally challenged. When we lived on the North Shore of Chicago, we tried, “Mom, when you’re heading home from town, keep the lake to your right.” Fail.

I think it’s fine, speaking as one who is not directionally challenged but is vertically challenged. Hi there, @LoveTheBard

I see no problem with it and am a fellow sufferer. I lose my sense of direction in shopping malls. :slight_smile:

Husband, on the other hand, can find his way around foreign cities he’s never been before with a map or navigation. I think he’s lived other lives and I’m a new soul.

^^Love those final statements, @doschicos.

I have no internal GPS and cannot read a map. I need the GPS on voice mode, showing the word menu, or even then going someplace new turns into a really bad experience.

@AboutTheSame : My husband had to tell me something quite similar, “As the ocean is the farthest west you can go, everytime you’re trying to get home, head away from the ocean.” I could not believe the simplicity of that instruction.

OP, go for it.

Actually, I meant to type husband needs no map or navigation. He has some sort of internal compass or spidey senses or something. :slight_smile:

So funny, @doschicos. I read it as “without”.

Yup. It’s a magnetic north spidey sense. You just always know where you are. The true test is being able to figure out which exit to take from a Tube station in London and which was to go when you get to street level.