Cat, congrats, you did the right thing. Just about everyone I've spoken to has had a similar experience.
I was lucky - mine was with an instructor on board. Not my regular instructor, who'd been snowed in while visiting his parents in Newcastle - this was another instructor who I knew, but had never flown with before.
Our intended track took us between two small airfields. I saw one off to my left, and told my instructor "there's XXX". He looked at his chart, and said he thought it was YYY, which should have been off to our right. Well, being the ignorant student, I of course believed my instructor. But if airfield YYY was on our left, that meant we were way off course.
I planned a course correction, flew it, and then found myself approaching a large town. Strange, since there weren't supposed to be large towns anywhere near my track. We orbited, and my instructor spent several minutes looking out of the window, then at his chart, then back out the window, and eventually identified the town as Oxford.
Turns out I was right about the airfield we'd passed - it was XXX. Therefore, the course correction I'd made had not been necessary, and had actually taken us well off the intended course. But having an instructor sat besides me looking very confused really helped me understand how to identify your position by looking out the window.
The instructor apoligised to me the next day. He explained he was very hung over, and he really should not have been flying at all that day. Credit to him for admitting it, but I never flew with him again.
Anyway, well handled cat - the system is there for you to use, and you used it.
FFF
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