Learning to Ask For Help

Every day if I need WiFi (I have my phone on airplane mode to save money.)  This means I have to ask a local cafe or restaurant (easiest places to find free Wi-Fi) for the password. This may seem unimportant but it has me reflecting a lot.

I’m independent. I can and am used to doing everything myself. If someone offers to help me out it takes a great deal of effort for me to accept. In fact, I realize I feel like I’m a burden to someone if I need their help and try, aggressively, to avoid doing it. When I herniated 2 discs in my neck in my 30s, I felt like a right-old pain-in-the-ass having to ask for help putting my bag into the overhead storage on airplanes. Even my mother can put her bag up there, and I’m the dumbass that has to bother someone else to help me, ugh.

View of Santiago de Compostella

So having to ask for the Wi-Fi password challenges me, every day, to ask for help. Sometimes I have to ask for directions, or even for recommendations. Sometimes other languages have a sign or words that confuse me, and I have to ask someone to decipher a message for me. It’s beginning to feel normal and acceptable. And, it’s actually a lovely way to connect with the people around me whom I otherwise might have missed because I was focusing on the directions on my iPhone or looking up how to translate something into the local dialect.

On the flip side, I love helping others. If not with their luggage, with their challenges. So, it’s rather ironic that I’m so reluctant to accept it.

The point is I’m not used to needing help every day – whether it’s linguistic (Portuguese was very difficult to learn) or Wi-Fi or something more profound. I’m being pushed to connect with other people and step outside yet another comfort zone.
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