They say trust your gut, listen to your instincts, and you'll always be sure to make the right call.
What happens when the situation is unfamiliar? When the choices presented to you are so foreign that any decision could feel like the wrong one? Err on the side of safety and always put your own safety ahead of others is a good way to go. Turns out, that might be the best call to make when you get that nagging feeling in the back of your stomach.
Reddit user, u/ObeseKunt, wanted to hear when you dodged the bullet when they asked:
(Serious) When did a gut feeling save your life?
Avoiding Spectacular Catastrophe
Sometimes, your life can lead you right to a tipping point, a place where calamity lays on one side and safety on the other, but you don't know it. All you need to do is make the right call and take care of yourself first.
Just Hold Off On The Gas For Just A Second
Not driving off immediately as the light turned green. Sure enough a second later two cars smashed into each other probably right where I would have been had I taken off when the light turned green. Scary seeing a head on collision happen literally less than 10 feet in front of you.
Sometimes It Pays To be Lazy
Don't know if this is a gut feeling or I just got plain lucky. Used to live in a really sketchy part of town. I decided not to go to the gym this one evening because I was super tired that day. That same evening, around the same time that I would normally walk to the gym, there was a shooting in an intersection that was part of my usual route. 2 people died. I think to myself, had I decided to go to the gym that day, 3 people may have died. So I got really lucky ironically by skipping gym.
Random Pain Is Definitely A Reason To Go In
My husband had a random back spasm that was unlike anything he ever felt. Said it wasn't too painful but it was out of the ordinary and it felt off. Went in and discovered it was kidney cancer. Freaking healthy, buff 32 year old with kidney cancer. We are so grateful he went in.
When Letting People In Leads To Trouble
Don't ever let people you don't know into your house.
Seriously. Just don't.
Always Feel Okay To Say No
My buddy's sister moved away from home, and within the first week of her living in her own home a man comes up to her door and asks her if he can "use her phone in her house because he is lost". She didn't buy it, felt uncomfortable and said no. Few hours pass, she walks outside to multiple police cars, ambulances and fire trucks. Turns out the guy went next door and murdered her 2 neighbors who let him in.
There Should Always Be Someone Else Home
When I was in college my boyfriend and I lived in an apartment. One day, when I was home alone, two guys knock on my door. I open up and they give me some story about donating to a charity. I was dumb and said ok sure let me get my purse.
When I turn around they are inside the foyer blocking the front door. I instantly get nervous and start fumbling with my checks...to which they say they don't take checks, just cash. Then, they ask if anyone else is there and I say yes my boyfriend is sleeping. I like to think I said that convincingly enough and I said, "let me go see if he has cash." I went into my bedroom to see if I had a weapon JIC, but I heard the door close and they were gone.
Head Home For Safety
I was working and had a terrible urge to go home. I am not one to ever call off or leave in the middle of a shift. I ended up saying I had a headache and my manager let me leave early.
Just a few short hours later I found out my managers ex husband came into the store and shot her dead.
People. Of Course, People Are Awful.
If there's one lesson you can take away from all these stories is this: People are the worst. Seriously. Don't talk to people or let people anywhere near you. Listen to your gut. If it says stay away from someone, stay away from that someone.
Always A Phone Call Away
Went on a date with someone from tinder.. The whole time he's talking about himself, it's nothing but the worst of the worst stories, about him being abusive to his multiple ex's but blaming them, telling me how his daughter hates him, and other horrible stuff that I can't even bring myself to say. While he's talking I'm pretty much having a panic attack the voice in my head is saying "calming GTFO!" So I say I have to go to family dinner, he's making every excuse to keep me and for me to go home with him so I just get in my car and go.. we're at a Starbucks outside.. he follows me!
So I call my mom, she tells me to go over and that she's calling the cops. Luckily she lives in a gated community where a guard is at the booth so he can't follow me in. He turns around and speeds off. The cops get there I give them all the information I have on this guy, he went in to details about his life and I told the cops everything.. turns out this guy kidnapped and brutally assaulted a girl and was on the run and was stupid enough to tell me his real name when we met in person. It was a long summer of multiple court dates just to end in him getting a bullsh-t sentence.
Staying Home From School
As a teenager in Ireland, one day I got this over whelming feeling to stay at home from school.
Good thing I did cos my friends called me later that night to say a girl who was bullying me, brought her junkie friend onto the school campus. Hid in the toilets for most of the day, waiting to beat the sh-t out of me.
My friends weirdly overhead the plan while they were using the toilets at morning break. This was the time before mobile phones were used, so they each called me later that night.
It can feel cruel to not speak to someone or to tell a person know, like you're somehow being rude or impolite. However, as evidenced above, with enough experience you can figure out what's safe for you and what's a moment of danger. Listen to your instincts. You'll be okay.
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