If I listened to my wife we would never get anywhere. I don’t know how many times this conversation has been repeated in our marriage:
Me: I’m turning right.
Wife: Why?
Me: Because that’s the way we need to go to get where we’re going.
Wife: Oh. I would have turned left.
Me: Why?
Wife: I don’t know.
It doesn’t have to be a new destination either. Many times it’s someplace we’ve been before but it doesn’t stick in her head.
My sense of direction is so bad that when a stranger asks me for directions around a city I’ve lived in for 12 years I just fake a heart attack to avoid the issue.
In our car, we call the non-driving spouse the “Nag-ivator.”
I can certainly relate to that problem. It's frustrating, it makes me appreciate the shame, embarassment and frustration my grandpa felt as he got older and 'confused'.
I've read theories that a sense of direction is actually created by the Hypthalamus having a high iron concentration, sort of like a built-in compass. At least this was true in birds, when the scientists glued small magnets to the bird's skulls; the birds lost the ability to navigate.
So, what does a college kid with no sense of direction do when he's out hunting with his friends? Say nothing, and take the lead from those friends who have a sense of direction. Then memorize landmarks as you go into the woods/hills; so if you do get separated, you can get yourself back to the truck. This is where my downfall would inevitably come in; as they would take a short-cut to the truck, and I would be forced to re-trace my path back; where they would walk a quarter mile back to the truck, I would trek miles - retracing my path back.