Can I Find It On The Map?

I am helping my daughter study for a geography test, and I am not sure what amazes me more--how much I don't know or how much she is expected to know. We certainly are isolated in our little worlds, aren't we? I mean, when I was going to Stamford each day, it felt like this long trip into the outer reaches. And yet, when I look at the multiple maps on which she has marked countries, I am reminded of how much farther things reach.
 
As I try to help her, I make up little stories about getting from one country to another--what direction you'd go, whether you are looking for a big or small place, and whether you are in an island kind of mood. Anything to make the process less about complete memorization, and more about relationships--what countries are neighbors, which border oceans, which are big or small compared to the others nearby.
 
For me, thinking in terms of relationships was the only way to have any shot at remembering the 75--yes, 75--places. But as I thought more about it, I realized that most of the things we remember, and value, are far more about relationships than about straight facts. It may well be that someone we know has the same job or background as we do, but that makes little difference, really, unless we establish a relationship around our shared interests. Where things and places in our lives are is much more relevant to us if we think about how those things and places fit into our existence. And places around the world suddenly become important to us when someone we know is affected by something in them. When we can see the relationships between places, or the relationships among people, we can understand a little more about why things happen as they do.
 
I'm hopeful that (perhaps thanks in part to my help) my daughter will do well naming her 75 places, even if she is muttering Mom's amusing pieces of trip advice while taking the test. And maybe I'll come away with a better sense of geography as well. After all, geography's not so different from networking and job hunting and working--and life. 

Whether it's finding yourself, or finding things on the map--it's all about relationships.