When you're in a tricky situation, the best thing to do is just listen to your gut. It always knows what's best for you, and won't let you down when the going gets tough. In some cases, it can actually save your life. Here are a few examples, courtesy of the people over at Reddit.
u/12345burrito asked: When has a gut feeling saved your life? [Serious]
That's so scary.
I almost got kidnapped once. I was like 23 or so.
I was walking down my street at a little after dusk. I saw a van approaching a little ahead, no lights on. Didn't think much of it due to the time of day.
The van slowed down and almost started creeping, as I was approaching this part of the sidewalk which had a tall solid wall fence to a community. This gave me some pause in that quick moment. For me to keep walking, I'd have to go between the wall and the van.
In the little time it took me to take a couple of steps, and as the van was getting close, I noticed that the side door was slowly sliding open.
The one thought in my mind was, why isn't the light turning on inside the van? When you open the door of a vehicle, the light should come on inside it. Unless you deliberately switch that off.
And I just ran to the median, I ran in front of the van and across the street... because if they're gonna have some use of roadkill me, have at it.... but they're not getting me in one glorious piece.
Immediately, the van took off like someone lit it on fire. From a slow crawl to full speed. As I looked after it to see the plates... I noticed it had no plates. And still no lights.
I called the police, of course. They sent cars out and didn't find the van. I never had anything like this happen again and I'm just an ordinary person, so I don't suspect it was targeted. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Spooky.
GiphyI get really bad vibes from the car park in work - it's a giant, poorly lit multi-story and I've seen enough horror films to know I shouldn't be taking it lightly. Whenever I get in, I pay attention to the floors people call the lift to to keep an eye on where they're going.
One time a guy got in in front of me and pressed 6, while I was parked on 8. He didn't get out at 6, and was still in the lift as I got to my floor. I leave, he doesn't... so I guess he's remembered he's on another floor, but just before I get to the dark area with all the cars, I turned back. This guy had waited about 30 seconds (therefore held the lift to wait) and silently emerged to follow me. I just stopped and stared him down. He had a deer-in-the-headlights look and turned straight back to the lift.
I have no idea if it saved my life but it freaked me the f*ck out!
Holy crap.
When I was around 18, I was on a backroad with some friends and a girl I didn't know was driving really fast. Now, I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie, and I have always enjoyed a calculated risk in the name of a good time, but on this occasion I told her to either slow the f*ck down or let me out. I literally had to start screaming at her before she listened and slowed down.
A week later she crashed on that same stretch of road at 90mph, killing her, and the three passengers of her car.
Smart of your wife to suggest that.
A pain in the lungs when I inhaled. I've never been stabbed, don't know what it's like but the pain should have been equal to it, if not worse.
It had happened before, years ago. Some hot water in the shower and the pain was gone.
My wife (then girlfriend) insisted on going to ER. I insisted on hot water. "I feel like we should go and see a doctor", she had said.
I was diagnosed with pulmonary embolism on both lungs. Doctor said "1 or 2 more hours and you were gone".
So yeah, I owe my wife one.
That's lucky.
GiphyMy now wife and I did the long distance thing in college, and I planned on doing my normal routine to visit her, leave Chicagoland in the morning, get to her early afternoon on Friday. Well I'm closing my store on Thursday night, and get a feeling I should leave that night. So I said 'F it' and left that night.
A little after lunch on Friday, tornado sirens go off. I don't think anything of it until I head back home Sunday, and drive through a town about half hour north of her. It got lit up by the tornado. I quickly realize that I had left at my normal time, I woulda been smack dab in the middle of tornado.
Oh my God.
Few years ago I was at a bar with a couple of friends. All was good, we were drinking and having fun.
All of sudden, we heard this discussion taking place just a couple of tables from us. Two guys decided to have a shouting/threat match.
I stopped everything to pay attention to them. My friends were making fun of me, saying I was gossipy.
One of the guys in the discussion got up and left. Immediately after he left I told my friends we had to go. Now. Let's gtfo now!
They didn't get why I was like that, but I'm their friends since forever, they reluctantly agreed.
We went to a different bar in a different neighborhood but I couldn't take my mind off of those two guys.
The next day, the news were talking about a bar fight. Apparently the guy who got up went home, grabbed a gun and came back for a drive by. Killed 4 people in the process.
My grandpa taught me to never ignore my gut and I couldn't be happier to have listened.
Good on your mom for standing her ground.
My mum knew something was wrong with me when I was younger, Drs didn't want to see me for another 2 weeks. Mum went into a blind rage over the phone telling them that she was taking me to get checked whether they liked it or not....
We got to the GP, he puts a stethoscope on my back and smells my breath. Then says "We need to get him to hospital NOW."
Turns out I have type 1 Diabetes and if I'd waited another day I would have died.
That's terrifying.
GiphyA few weeks ago.
I had just left my apartment complex and was heading to a friends. I pulled out of my driveway and up to the traffic light and stopped, I was in the left turn lane, light was red. It was late out and there wasn't many people on the road. I watched as the light went yellow, and then red for through traffic, one guy ran the tail end of the yellow, like usual.
My turn! Light goes green, I have an arrow blinking for me to turn left, I looked both ways and there was no one around, and I just didn't go.
I can not explain what happened other than something inside me just said DON'T GO, so I sat there staring at the green light. A couple seconds later a car came screaming through the red light, through the intersection, probably doing about 100km/hr, in the lane I would have been turning in to. They were going so fast their vehicle had a bounce to it. If I had turned my car would have been destroyed, and me along with it.
I sat there through the whole next light cycle and then turned, pulled over and called my sister. It was a ghostly feeling. I am a light jumper, I look both ways but I am impatient, and I can not explain what stopped me from going the second that light went green, but I'm glad it did.
Bless that fifth doctor.
Lump in my right breast. 43 years old; clean mammogram 5 months earlier. I just knew. Four different doctors told me it was nothing and to come back in a year. I did not and found a 5th. Yeah, I had to argue my way into being diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer.
On the bright side, Thursday was my 5 years all clear date!
Nope.
I was at the county fair when I was younger, like eight or nine. I wandered off from my parents and I had an odd feeling that I was being watched, but I ignored that for some reason. This man had followed me up and down the walkways of the expo hall we were standing in. As he started to get closer, I got this overwhelming feeling of fright.
I called for my dad and I could tell it startled him — he promptly turned and changed direction from me.
A really quick thing but it's stuck with me all these years.
Do you have something to confess to George? Text "Secrets" or "" to +1 (310) 299-9390 to talk him about it.
"After a recent study found 1 in 8 men under 35 admit to taking condoms to funerals "just in case", what's your experience with this?"
Select Crowd...
"I went to my grandma's funeral and hit it off with this hot nurse."
"Things were going great until my brother pulled me aside and said it was my second cousin."
'You know who shows up at funerals for old people? "
"Family members."- bumblef**kglobal
"I remember seeing a really hot chick at my grandmother's funeral."
"Immediately thought was I should chat her up."
"Then my brain went to, 'What if she's family and we just never met?'"
"I just went back to mourning."- VideoGameDana
Okay then...
"Once I was dating a girl whose dad absolutely forbid us from dating."
"Like, would lock his daughter in her room and take her phone to make sure we did not communicate."
"She told me when we spoke for a moment at Starbucks that she would date me if her dad was out of the picture."
"He died is a car crash on the freeway, and since her mom liked me invited me to the funeral."
"My girl and I sat next to each other at the funeral and couldn't wait, got it on in the parking lot of the funeral home."
"Condom was necessary."- crunchysquare
car studio GIF by ZI ItalyGiphyNever The Funeral, Always The Wake
"Ngl, some of the best parties I’ve been to have been wakes."
"In no way disrespectful, they were a celebration of the person’s life and also a massive tension release after grimness of the funeral itself."
"So I’m not surprised some people take a condom just in case."
"I’ve never done it, but I didn’t often expect to get laid regardless of situation."- Goryokaku
Oops...
"Proudly in the 7 out of 8 camp."
"But the 1 in 8 aren’t wrong."
"Heard through the family grapevine that one of my female cousins met a dude at a funeral and they banged it out the same night."
"Also turns out they were related (what’re the odds at the funeral of a relative? )."
"Distant enough they would never see each other again (different branches of her family), close enough that their family photo albums have overlapping people."- ESQBOJaguar
If You Really Think About It...
"Biologically speaking mourning/death triggers mating instincts as though that death tells the lizard brain in us that we need to procreate because death is scary."
"Scum'ically speaking, funerals typically leave people especially women in a state of fragility that leaves them vulnerable to suggestion and coercion."
"Socially speaking, some people, both men and women, seek comfort and company after/during a mourning period and when two people engage in comforting each other emotionally through a death it can trigger chemicals in the brain that cause the idea of connection or chemistry which can inevitably lead to copulation."- KURO-K1SH1
Season 18 Episode 3 GIF by The SimpsonsGiphyBetter Safe Than Sorry!
"If you forget to bring a condom you increase the chance of casual sex with 10.000%."
"It’s a well-known fact."- Mukkeman
Not Just Men...
"I'm not a man and I've taken condoms 'just in case' pretty much anywhere."
"I've told folks to take condoms 'just in case' to a festival who I was sure would never have a one night stand and who I had never even seen mingle with any man/woman."
"It's a safety."
"The thing costs less than a dollar, but if anything somehow would happen, not having it could cost you your healthiness or independence/freedom due to a child being your new responsibility."
"Unless you absolutely, 100% am sure you will not be having sex that day, and no one will be able to change your mind - carry a condom."
"And having visited a funeral is likely not impactful enough to everyone to make them absolutely sure of that."-deterministic_lynx
It Is, Indeed, A Source Of Comfort...
"I'm a woman, but I'm going to point out that grief affects everyone differently."
"Some people get an intense need for sex when they are grieving, I speak from experience here."
"Perhaps they're carrying them everywhere already, but choosing to take some specifically to a funeral makes perfect sense to me."- Sexy-Snowflake
"My bf's son died, and his sex drive was significantly higher around that time period, I think it's just a way men deal with stress."- Arielxxxlee
Sexy Ava Gardner GIF by Turner Classic MoviesAlways Listen To Your Mother...
"When I turned 15 my mom told me to always have a condom in my wallet just in case."
"That was before people realized it was really bad to keep it in your wallet."
"So yeah I’ve been pretty much everywhere with one 'just in case'."- euphoria110
If It's Already There, Why Take It Out?
"I do too."
"I'm not going to remove the random condom that is in my wallet just because I'm going to a funeral."
"Not that I ever needed one, I'm still a virgin BTW."- azarbi
When One Life Ends, Another Begins...
"I’ve heard that the proximity of death increases the desire to make new life."
"Anecdotally, my FIL and MIL met at a funeral and 9 months later my husband was born."- KerouacsGirlfriend
Lionel Messi Hug GIF by FC BarcelonaGiphyNot SPECIFICALLY Funerals...
"We bring condoms everywhere, 'just in case', not only the funeral, you silly!"- WeetIkVeelNL
No one should be judged if they happen to have a condom with them when attending a funeral.
After all, should the moment arise, better to be prepared and safe.
On the other hand, if any of these people are attending the funeral with the intention of "getting lucky", that's just... yeah...
Redditor Spinksy48 wanted to understand the fun of letting your opponent lose by just doing nothing, so they asked:
"What is your 'never interrupt an enemy while they are making a mistake' moment?"
If the story starts to get really crazy, just wait for a break.
Then ask a question from the beginning.
I guarantee you know more of the lie than they do.
Just keep talking, friend.
Gotcha
Dashcam Hello GIF by TranscendGiphy"I let the lady who changed lanes into me run her mouth about how I rear-ended her before pulling the cop aside to show him my DashCam footage."
ThrowingChicken
A Cherry Wave
"I was accused by a neighbor of reversing out of my drive and hitting his car. He gave me the date and time I had allegedly done it and pointed to a (small) scrape on my car that supposedly matched perfectly the location of the dent on his. This was 7 weeks after the alleged event, by the way."
"I said it wasn't me but told him to contact his insurance and we'd see what they said. A few weeks later I get a letter from my insurance asking what had happened, to which I responded with the date I had bought my car (and updated my insurance) - two weeks after the supposed bump."
"He never spoke to me again but I used to give him a cheery wave every time I saw him glowering at his window."
Gazcobain
Speak Once
"In a meeting with my project manager who has not been in the office or worked a proper full day for MONTHS, she has increasingly been annoyed by people bypassing her to get things done by telling me and her other direct reports what to do."
"I was about to answer a question for stakeholders, and she told me to let her speak one sentence and will let me have my bit. I did as I was told, and she told the stakeholder a completely wrong thing about the system we were handling and made a complete fool out of herself. She got sacked this month."
choiaera
We Hated Each Other
"Guy stole a presentation from me, this is 25 years ago. We hated each other. When he started presenting I realized I had made a huge error, didn’t say anything. Let him get through it. Asked him about the error, but he couldn’t answer. This was in front of COO. Got fired, not for just that, he was an overall douche. This was before everyone was on PCs, and had one printer in one room."
Bmilvis
Whoops
Office Space GIF by 20th Century Fox Home EntertainmentGiphy"When a coworker who I hated got fired a few weeks after I decided to stop fixing his mistakes even if it impacted a client."
Hrekires
It's always thrilling to see the bad colleagues go!
Bye. Bye. Bye.
I will see you on the 15th
Idiot Reaction GIFGiphy"Not my story, but several years ago my older brother was fighting for custody of his son with his ex-wife. As the first custody hearing date approached, they were exchanging [un]pleasantries over text and my brother ended up saying something along the lines of, 'I'm not continuing this conversation. I will see you on the 15th.' The ex-wife told him, 'The hearing is on the 25th dumba**.'"
"So of course instead of correcting her, my brother just allowed her to keep thinking it was the wrong date, and she missed the first hearing entirely. It became the first of many mistakes she made in the court system that eventually led to my brother and the woman who is now his second wife winning full custody of his son."
Damn_Furries
Follow the Prints
"I'm working on a job site and the architect is there one day. I've been given some light fixtures for the sconces in a leasing office lobby. The fixtures are meant to be hung from a ceiling, they can't be installed on a wall. I attempt to convey this to the architect, but he brushes me off and just tells me to follow the prints."
"I turn to the apprentice and say, well you heard the man, put them up. A bit later, we hear the crashing of glass. The architect asks what was that? I said your light fixture. As I picked up a broom and dustpan to go clean up."
Ohhhhhhthehumanity
No Debt
"As I was being fired from a job, the district manager requested we record the conversation. He thought I was gonna be very upset, so I obliged. Then when he started to tell me why I was being fired he started with, 'You are gonna be graduating college soon, and we want to make sure we get ahead of you leaving us.'"
"I very calmly asked him to send me the recording right after he said that. Then later that day I called a lawyer. I now have no student loan debt."
JRTHEAMAZING
The Screams
"I reminded my ex-wife the divorce court was the next day and was invited to Get F**ked. So I went by myself, she failed to appear and pissed off the Judge so he asked what would be my desired outcome for assets and Custody of the kids. He wrote down whatever I wanted and I could hear her screams when she read the Orders from 3500km away."
comfortablynumb15
Silence
"There's a thing in law enforcement/legalese called a spontaneous utterance. Many many people will bury their own cases with these while bi*ching and moaning at their arresting officer on the way to jail."
raccoonsonbicycles
That last one is good knowledge to have in the back pocket.