Going through immigration in Ghana was the first time I considered bribery.

After a short kerfuffle over my visa, which was accidently issued for 2018, I thought I was good to go until the officer looked at my immigration form. As there are no addresses in Ghana, I had simply written “University of Ghana” for the place where I was staying.

The officer wanted more specifics: Who was I staying with? Which dorm at the university? And of course, what was my exact address?

I started freaking out. I had my phone on me, but I had no access to the Internet and no way to call anyone. For the first time in a while, I felt totally helpless. While I put myself in stressful situations pretty much daily, I can use my phone to get out of most of them. Get lost in my small college down? Use my phone’s map function to figure out directions. Trying to pretend I know about some unknown band that everyone else at a party is talking about? Google it.

But now, after almost 24 hours of travel and next to no sleep, I couldn’t rely on any of my tried and true methods. And this made me even more nervous.

It is times like these that make me wonder how my parents and previous generations were able to get through life sans Internet. I’m hesitant to rant about Millennials supposed dependency on technology, but in a foreign country, with no way to contact anyone for help, my privilege was pretty clear. Although, in that moment, I was too scared about being able to enter the country to contemplate the ramifications of iPhones on my generation.

Instead, I knew I had to think on my feet. I’m not very good at crying on demand, so that was out of the question, and I knew confidence was going to be key in this situation. My friend had written “University of Ghana” on her form and gone through just fine. Even after I told my officer this, he didn’t relent.

That’s when I started to wonder if some foul play was afoot. You always hear horror stories about dangerous border crossings and, more commonly, the exploitation of young, naïve Westerners like me by government officials. At that point, exhausted from travel and just wanting a comfortable bed, I was more than willing to bend the rules to get into the country.

But this raised many more questions: How much do you bribe an officer? Will he take my crisp American dollars? And most importantly, how do you tell someone you want to give them money in exchange to enter their country? Although, I was mostly wondering if it was even legal and if I would end up in an even worse situation if the officer wasn’t down with the plan. I realized that maybe bribery wasn’t the best option, at least not yet. It would be a last-ditch effort. If all else failed, there was still hope that a new Benjamin could get me the stamp into Ghana.

But before that, I knew I first needed to think like MacGyver. The only way to stay calm was to channel my favorite detectives: Veronica Mars, Sherlock Holmes and a little Sam Spade. All of these sleuths know how to use the resources around them and work people to get what they want.

The officer had suggested that I go call the person I was staying with in Ghana and get an address from them. While that was an option, it would require leaving my passport with him and trying to find a phone booth. I looked around and realized that I could ask one of my friends, who was behind me in line and magically had service in Ghana, for an address.

A rush of relief came over me. I no longer felt desperate and alone. In one minute, I went from wanting nothing more than my mom to come and take over the role of adult to handling the situation myself.

I think that’s why we travel: to get into situations that are uncomfortable or different. There are going to be times when you feel unsafe or insecure and have no clue what to do. It’s easy to imagine spending life avoiding these sorts of dilemmas, but even if they don’t help you grow as a person, they at least make for a good story once it’s all over.