People Share Their Best Stories About Trusting Their Gut Instincts

There's no such thing as a purely rational decision. Even if we take the time to really think things through, a favorable result may still not be guaranteed. In some cases, we may not even have the luxury to think rationally—we simply have to trust our gut instinct to make a call; one that has no basis on any sort of fact or proven science. Yet, doing so can still somehow get us out of tricky situations. Here are people's best stories about trusting their gut instincts:

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#1 Investigative Work

In college, I had an OkCupid account. I saw this one profile that made me stop and chuckle a bit because she had a Grinch hat on in the picture. Well, I was going to send her a message but I was interrupted and had to leave. Meanwhile, my laptop battery died and I lost the page or any reference of what her name was. No worries I thought, I'll just search and look for her again, the Grinch hat makes it easy.

That night, I set to it and for the life of me, I couldn't find her. I looked through probably 600 profiles over a couple of hours and couldn't find her. I looked again, and again. It was eating at me now, I didn't know why but I just couldn't shake it. Well, about three hours later, I found her. It turns out that the search algorithm or something had made a mistake. She lived 125 miles away and I was only ever looking at anything under 50. I almost wrote it off, thinking it was too far but I had a gut feeling so I just went ahead and sent her a message. We ended up agreeing to meet at a coffee shop and chatted for four hours. Now five years later, we're married.

#2 Same Place, Same Night

My friends both have a similar story on the night they met each other. He was in grad school and she was a senior. He didn't want to go out to the younger college bars in town but all his friends did, so he begrudgingly went. She wasn't feeling well but it was her friend's birthday, so she begrudgingly went. They met that night and got married three years later. Not so much gut feelings but outside factors that dragged them out together at the same place on the same night.

#3 By A Hair

I woke up one morning thinking to myself, "BE VERY CAREFUL TODAY." Around mid-afternoon, I was stopped at a red light. The light turned green and I suddenly had this gut instinct to pull into the intersection very slowly, looking carefully in the direction I couldn't see in. A few seconds later, a horn behind me sounded—a semi came flying past the nose of my truck. How it didn't hit me I have no idea... It had to have missed me by literally a hair.

#4 Almost T-Boned

I was behind a guy who was in the front of a left turn lane (it was a turn arrow stoplight). The turn arrow turned green, but he was messing around with something and didn't get going for a few seconds. For whatever reason, I just sat and waited instead on honking. Soon after he started moving, he got hit by a freaking semi running the red light! Because he wasn't watching and started moving late, the semi only hit the very front of his car. If he had accelerated normally when the light changed, he would have gotten full-on T-boned and probably would have died.

#5 A Lifesaving Delay

I was the car behind the guy sitting at a green light. I was late for work and I honked my horn when he didn't immediately move when it turned green. After a couple of seconds, a dump truck barreled through the red light going way over the 30 mph speed limit. Had the guy in front started going through like normal, he would have made it fine, but I have no doubt in my mind I would have been T-boned. And I'm pretty sure my tiny Civic wouldn't have held up well to a speeding dump truck. I wish I could thank that person for probably saving my life.

#6 Swerve To Safety

I was driving home late one night, just minding my own business. I was hanging out in the center of three lanes on the highway doing maybe a few miles over the speed limit. Suddenly, I just felt the strongest gut feeling I'd ever had to I swerve over. So I did, and not a second later did a huge black truck come absolutely flying through all three lanes, just missing me by feet.

It would have nailed me if I'd have stayed where I was. The guy didn't have his lights on so I had no idea he was there. My mother called me almost immediately after this happened. She said she woke up with an urgent feeling to pray for me right then. She asked if anything had happened. I told her about what had happened and she started crying. Absolutely nuts.

#7 Speeding Semis

I was driving through coal country after stupidly setting my GPS to avoid toll roads going from NC to Illinois. The area was heavily laden with big rigs and semis. Coming down a hill on a 55 mph road, there was a stoplight that was yellow. I had to brake pretty urgently so I wouldn't run the light, but I stopped in time without skidding screeching or anything.

As I was slowing down, I thought, "Hmm, maybe I should pull over on the shoulder, since I did brake pretty suddenly." So I pulled to the side and it's a good thing I did—the semi behind me made no attempt to stop at all and barreled through the intersection, running the red light, at full speed. Me in my sedan, I would have been completely obliterated.

#8 Not A Party

A  good friend called to invite me to a party at his brand new house. It was going to be a good party with a bunch of my friends and lots of drinks to consume. For some reason though, my brain told me to sit this party out. It was probably the first Saturday, in over a year, that I had chosen to stay in. I woke up the next morning and found out that some of my friends, including the one who had invited me, had gotten into a huge fight. Two of the guys even got struck by bullets. I literally dodged a bullet there.

#9 A Good Call

My sisters were planning on going to a party on Father’s Day but skipped out on it, which was very unusual for them because they were teenage girls ready to go to parties at the drop of a hat. Well, at this party, there was a drive-by. People in the front yard were sprayed down. My sister's boyfriend lost his life and one of their good friends was shot through both legs. If they had been at the party, they would’ve most definitely been in the front yard with them. I’ve never really thought about that.

#10 Stranger Danger

When I was about 10 years old I used to water my neighbor's plants for her while she was on vacation. Normally, my older brother and I went together, but the previous day we got into a giant argument that turned into a water fight, so my mom decided we would go alone on alternate days for the rest of her trip. Now, my neighbor had A LOT of flowers and tiny 10-year-old me had to drag a hose all the way around her yard. It wasn’t an easy task.

I started by dragging the hose from the side yard to the front. I noticed the back sliding screen door was in the center when usually it was to the side. I shrugged it off and got the hose to the front door. Then, all of the sudden had a gut feeling something was off and I needed to get out of there. I dropped the hose and went back to my house next door. I told my mom something was off and I was too scared to finish watering. She brushed me off and we went about our day, telling me we could finish the task together later. She thought I was just too tired or lazy to do it all on my own. I told her that it wasn’t true and I got a weird feeling over there. But anyway, we decided we would return that evening when it cooled off.

When we returned that evening, the back window was broken and my neighbor's house had been robbed. One of the large flower pots was now knocked over. The screen door was now off to the side again. That means the burglars were probably inside while I was outside watering the plants. We were both terrified and called the police, of course. My mom now believes in my gut feelings.

#11 Disney Nightmare

I was a birthday party princess in college. I'd dress up as a Disney character, sing some songs, help with the cake, paint faces, typical party stuff. I get called to a party that began at 8 p.m. Unusual but not unheard of in our industry, a lot of Spanish-speaking families party well into the night. I pulled up down the street (princesses don't drive) and began walking to the house, dressed as Sleeping Beauty, with my "party box" of supplies in hand. When I saw the house, I knew immediately something was wrong. There were no lights on, no cars, no balloons... but against my better judgment, I knocked on the door.

This super creepy looking guy in his mid-fifties answered in a dirty T-shirt and jeans. The first thing he said was: "The party's around back." I took one look at this guy and booked it as fast as I could while holding the box, wearing a ballgown and being mildly crippled, to begin with. I got into my car, locked the doors, floored it to a 7-11 and called my boss. The "party" never called demanding to know where their princess was. No one asked for their deposit back. My boss called the police but I don't know if anything was ever done. I'm 100% sure there was no "party" in that house.

#12 Pokemon Hunters

My friend and I were walking around at like 2 a.m. in the morning playing Pokemon Go when it had first come out. It was very quiet and we were just talking to each other when all of a sudden, a very loud truck came down the road and drove past us. Then, all of a sudden, I just got this feeling in my gut that told me to run.

I told my friend what I was feeling and he immediately told me to run. So we ran behind a gas station parking lot and hid behind a dumpster for a second. Sure enough, that same truck had turned around at the light, came back to the parking lot, and went behind the store (in their truck) looking for us. They were in and out but, it was still one of the most chilling feelings I've had before.

#13 It's A Trap

My gut told me to not stop to help a woman in distress and to keep driving instead. She turned out to be a ploy for a group of bandits who attack people and steal cars from those who pull over to help. It’s a creepy feeling. If anyone comes across this, you should drive away and report it to the police somewhere safe, so they can find out if that person actually needs help or if it's a trap, etc.

#14 Hiding Away

I was joyriding around with two friends in the Shenandoah National Forest. We saw that one gated road was open, so we decided to go down it to explore. We drove probably 10 miles down this road which seemed to be surprisingly well-traveled considering its gate was locked 99% of the time. The road dead-ended and we got out to look around.

It was obvious someone had been there with fresh tire tracks visible. The ground was pretty disturbed as well. The three of us split up to look around more. I came across a fire pit with a few makeshift benches and a fire had just been quickly snuffed out. I started to get that gut feeling. Then, I noticed next to the fire pit that there was a stick driven into the ground. At this point, my stomach had pretty much dropped. It seemed to me that someone was hiding from us.

I got back to the vehicle my friends didn't even need to say anything to each other, we all felt the same thing, which was a need to get out of that hollow as fast as possible. We haven't been back since. It turned out, a short time later, a man went missing in that same general area. To this day, he has never been found despite many search attempts. His name is Robert Fitzgerald. I think some people were hiding out there, maybe running from the law.

#15 Two Surprises

#16 A Close Call

I was taking my dog to the park and I was stuck at a light. I live in a busy city and people drive terribly. The light turned green and people began walking across the crosswalk as I pulled out to take my turn. I felt like I needed to brake and just went with it. Right as I did that, a white SUV flew through the red light. It almost hit the people walking across and came within inches of my car.

I laid on my horn and all I could see was this middle-aged woman looking up from her phone. This all happened within about a second but I still hate that woman and her face is burned into my brain. She could have ended the lives of people walking or hit my car and tossed my dog (I don't strap her in because it is literally a one-minute drive).

#17 The Fateful Detour

I couldn't sleep, so I was driving around in the middle of the night, listening to music and enjoying the empty roads. Finally, I started heading home and joined up with my usual route, getting to a point where I could turn right to head home. I'd been driving for a while but as I reached this turn, I had the overwhelming urge to turn left. Every time I thought about turning right, I felt this sense of dread and discomfort. I couldn't even bring myself to start to signal for that direction. I turned left instead and drove to the next town, turned around there, and came back, adding about 40 extra minutes to my journey. When I approached that road again, I felt fine and continued home.

I arrived home and literally as I was turning into my drive, my tire blew out. No warning, just bam. Luckily, I'm was only going about 5 mph as I turned into my drive, but it was still an effort to control the car. It was almost impossible to park it; the steering wheel was hard to turn, and the passenger side of the car felt heavy and difficult to maneuver. I was upset but thankful it had happened when I was driving and not stranded out in the country at 3 a.m.

It hit me as I was organizing someone to come out and fix it the next day. Usually, at that time of the morning, I would be heading into town. If the tire was going to blow, it would have done so 20 minutes into the journey—when I was on a busy road doing 60 mph with oncoming traffic only feet away. The extra time added to the journey the night before had instead caused it to blow harmlessly in my drive. I have no way to prove that it would have blown in a more dangerous place, but considering my gut instinct, I do think the detour probably saved me.

#18 Ten More Seconds

It was like someone was telling me to stand in my kitchen. I had everything I needed to leave for work, but this feeling of forgetting something was so strong I just stood there. After I checked for everything again, I took a step towards the door and it was like someone was yelling at me to stop, so I stood for 10 more seconds. And then the feeling went away like a gate was lifted and I could pass.

I got in my car and did my normal drive. I hit some heavier than normal traffic before coming across a five-car pile-up. One car was turned 180, others were smashed and everyone was standing around on their phones. Had I left like I wanted to, I would have been a part of it. I knew it, too and just said out loud, “Thank you.”

#19 When You Don't Listen

One day, I was driving to pick up my daughter from daycare and I noticed an injured robin. I drove past it because I had the strongest urge not to stop. Well, I felt like a jerk, so I turned around and got it. Picking him up and dropping him off made me 30 minutes late driving home from daycare. Some jerk was texting and driving and T-boned me, and then I T-boned a truck. The robin didn’t make it through the night and now I have crippling anxiety. I probably should have just left the robin. Probably.

#20 Too Sad

It happened in the worst way. I was working with a patient whose cancer was in full remission. She looked amazing and was telling me about the trips she and her husband were planning—Paris, Africa, etc.—all the places she couldn't go to because of kids, military, and now cancer. But now, with nothing holding her back, she was going to take the world by storm.

It hit me, and it hit me hard. As we were setting up her follow up appointments, she asked me if I was ok. I said it was just gas and she laughed me off.

One week later, she died in the hospital. Her cancer returned and in record time destroyed her to the point that she was bleeding internally. They were going through so many bags of blood that the commander of the hospital told them to stop. I will never forget the look on her face as she dreamt of the future that I knew would never happen and the feeling it gave me.

#21 I Can't Breathe

I was 12 when I started allergy shots, and it's a 5-year program to try to make yourself immune from allergies. There is a standard of 15 minutes you have to wait after getting the shots to make sure there's no reaction. You also have to understand the way they do allergy shots, they start with a really small dose, and gradually build up the dosage, stay at the peak level, and then start over with a small dosage. They repeat this over and over until the treatment is done.

Anyway... I had been getting them for four years now. One more year left. I was at the peak dosage level for a month or so and everything seemed normal. I got my shots, waited the 15 minutes, and my dad who drove me there said the time was up and we could go. I felt fine, but I just felt like I needed to wait a little longer, and I told him to just wait 5 more minutes.

Within the next couple of minutes, I was having trouble breathing. We got the doctor and he had me do the breath-strength test where you blow into a tube to check your lung strength or something. This was visually represented as the 3 little pigs and I am trying to blow the doors down. I normally get them all down without a problem. This time, I couldn't even get the first door down.

They rushed me to an exam room and laid me down, got me some oxygen, and were checking my blood pressure levels. My BP was dropping and dropping and they told my dad to call my mom because I might not make it. They had to give me two shots of what I was told adrenaline or something, but I'm assuming it was actually epinephrine? I don't know for sure, but they said to keep my heart pumping and to stop the blood pressure from going down.

Anyway, I came out of it and they informed me I'm no longer allowed to get allergy shots ever again... which sucks because I didn't finish the series and my allergies are back as if I've never spent years getting allergy shots every week. At least I'm alive. Glad I trusted my feelings.

#22 Jolted Awake

My mom was actively dying in hospice and my sister, brother-in-law, and I were in the room with her, basically just waiting for her to take her last breaths. It took her about 24 hours to go from actively dying to passed away. Anyway, we were all taking turns taking naps so one of us would be awake in case the moment came. My sister stepped out of the room to take a phone call and my brother-in-law was already asleep.

I closed my eyes for a few seconds it felt like, but I must have fallen asleep because I remember being jolted awake by this feeling of urgency. I sat up and the nurse looked at me with that look on her face like, "Oh man, it's gonna happen." So we yelled for my sister, woke my brother-in-law up and within about two minutes, my mom passed peacefully with all of us awake and surrounding her with love. I've just never had that feeling of urgency so hard in my life.

#23 A Tragic Discovery

In my teens, I used to help the elderly lady across the street with yard work, painting, and odd jobs to help maintain her home (she lived alone and couldn't manage it by herself). I noticed that things had changed across the street—her lights weren't coming on at night as usual, and I didn't see her outside for several days. So, my instincts told me to go over and check. I found her lying on the kitchen floor, lifeless, with her beloved cat Tompkins, crying for food and looking upset. If I hadn't followed my gut feelings and looked in, the situation might have gone on for a long time as no one else visited her or checked in on a regular basis.

#24 My Mother's Intuition

My mom and dad went to visit some friends in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The friends introduced my parents to their daughter and her boyfriend. Well, the entire time my parents were visiting, my mom kept getting this really bad feeling about the boyfriend. He made her so uncomfortable that my parents actually ended up leaving early. Well, a few weeks after their visit, the boyfriend ended my parents' friends, their daughter, and another kid before ending himself. My mom was definitely right.

#25 Transmitting A Message

I was driving my teenage nephew to a job interview. In the car was also his grandmother and younger brother. Suddenly and totally unexpectedly, I felt as if I was compelled to speak. I had an intense feeling that he shouldn't take the job. I warned him that I felt a terrible dread and that death was associated with the place. It also felt as if these weren't my words and I was just transmitting a message or passing on an official warning. He got the job (it was in a restaurant) and hee ignored my warning.

Turns out, the place was a hotbed of really bad people. Death, despair, and madness followed. He became a hollow-eyed scarecrow and opportunistic sneak thief. He stole his grandmother's engagement ring while she was at her husband's funeral. He went to prison. He eventually lost his mind. Strange to report he's still alive when so many others along the way died. He's about 40 now and living on a pension. He's doing okay, but the damage to his brain is permanent.

#26 A Bear Scare

During a family vacation in Yellowstone, my parents sent me and my siblings out of our rented cabin so they could be alone (in hindsight, to do things I'd rather not think about). There was a small gas station type of store by the main lodge, so they handed me some cash and told us to go out and get ice cream.

Some relevant information: there were two ways to the main lodge from our cabin, a scenic lakeside walk, or a roadside trek. As the eldest sibling, I was in charge of the younger two and the ice cream mission. Normally, I'm the kind of person who picks the scenic route, but something that day told me to walk the (not as pretty) road. My siblings were disappointed, but I pulled rank and we walked the road to the store.

On our way back from getting ice cream, we passed by a cabin next to ours along the road, where the current renter was sitting on the porch. He yelled over at us to be careful and get inside—not fifteen minutes earlier, when we would have been walking to get ice cream, he had seen a decent-sized grizzly bear walking on the lake right where we would have walked. I've trusted my gut ever since then.

#27 A Big Confession

I was in a long term relationship for several years during college. One time, we went on a short road trip with my beautiful best friend and two other friends, and I was in just a horrible mood. No idea why. Several months later, when we were "off again," I was in the shower and the weirdest thought popped into my head: "The boyfriend should date best friend! 'They'd be perfect together!" It didn't make any sense, but I felt compelled to address it with my boyfriend. I called him and told him what had popped into my head, and he immediately confessed that he'd been in love with her since before we had broken up.

#28 Living Through History

This is my grandfather's story when he was in the navy back in WWII. He was on the ship at a base doing some grunt work (it's been years since me or my dad heard the story, so some details are lost), and all of a sudden he decided to he needed to get off the ship. So he made his way off; I forget if he had to make an excuse or something. But not even two minutes after he got off, the ship exploded. An aerial attack hit the base from the Japanese. My grandfather lived through Pearl Harbor purely because of a gut feeling. Thanks, pop pop.

#29 Guild Love

A few years back, I was playing Neverwinter alone like I always did because I was nervous about joining voice chats. I had turned down several guild requests, but this one that I got while I was doing elemental quests made me feel really urgently like I should accept it. So I did and immediately got a chat invite too, which I would normally not accept and say I prefer text chat, but I accepted it without all that.

We all started talking and there was one guy I just clicked with so heavily. In the next few weeks, we spent as much time as we could in the chat together. And now he's my forever person. Things didn't work out with that particular guild, but we are still going strong, and I know he's the one for me.

#30 A Sad Thought

I was sitting in high school band class that morning. A friend of mine popped into my head out of nowhere. We weren't super close but were in a lot of the same afterschool clubs and classes together. She was suddenly at the forefront of my mind and I felt extremely uneasy. A little while later, the principal announced over the school's intercom system that she had passed away that morning in a car accident on her way to school.

#31 In The Nick Of Time

I was walking on the sidewalk of a busy street. As I approached a streetlight where there was also a trash can, I got this weird feeling and decided to veer my path away from the street and toward the shops. After I passed the trash can, a car jumped the curb and smashed into the streetlight and trash can. I can't explain it. I just felt like I needed to get away from that one area and a moment after I moved, a car crashed there. I totally would have been hit by it had I not moved away.

#32 We Have Your Back

I was out with my aunt and this much older woman, maybe in her 90s, stopped us at the grocery store saying she was a psychic. She said she didn't usually stop people but urged that I needed to be much more careful when I'm on my own. She even strongly suggested I need to carry pepper spray. When I asked why she said she knew I loved to take walks and be by myself but I'm too consumed in my thoughts or distracted by the beauty to recognize danger right away.

I took this lightly and didn't really agree until I was at a reptile expo. My dad was in the bathroom and I was walking around looking at snakes. I was holding this ball python when I felt breath on my neck and awkwardly moved over without looking over my shoulder assuming somebody else wanted to look at the snakes. Then this woman aggressively shoved her way between me and this other person like she was ready to fight with him.

She then told me it was a strange man who was following me around and she had a really bad feeling about him. She kept her eye on me and he had hovered over me an uncomfortable long time once I was alone. She was the second one who told me to watch my surroundings or carry pepper spray. So I thanked her and looked past her to see the man she was talking about. He did give off bad vibes. Really tall, Long stringy hair, sunken eyes, scars on his face.

#33 A Lucky Friend

Freshmen year at college, I had a buddy who decided to get completely smashed for his 19th birthday. Since he was "legal in Canada," that means you can get plastered in Michigan, right? Close enough. Anyway, we lived on the third floor of our dorm and the staircase was situated in a way where you could lean over and fall to the next descending set of stairs next to it.

My gut feeling is, "This dude is going to do some dumb stuff and fall over the guard rails." I, slightly tipsy, bolted it down the stairs to the parallel second floor and as I looked up, my friend came crashing down backward. I grabbed the back of his shirt near his neck and he fell face first, one inch away from busting his nose on the bottom of the second floor. I was shocked that I not only predicted it but was able to firmly grab him by the back of his shirt in mid-air.

#34 Grill Senses

One time, my dad was grilling and even though we’ve grilled hundreds of times before on our deck, I had a gut feeling that I should check to see if any red flakes from the charcoal had gone astray. I looked down below our deck and sure enough, one was caught perfectly in the right spot to stay alive and start a fire. I immediately got water and put that out.

#35 In A Panic

I couldn't sleep because my lungs would fill up and I'd wake in a panic. My primary care doctor diagnosed this as a sinus infection draining into my lungs when I laid down. This went on for a few weeks—the antibiotics weren't helping and he wouldn't budge on his diagnosis. I drove to a local Emergency Room and within 15 minutes they diagnosed me with end-stage heart failure with multiple blood clots in my heart. Eventually, I was put on the heart transplant list and received a new heart three years ago.

#36 Study Buddies

I was supposed to go on a date with this one guy, but I had just gotten back from Houston (I went to college in a different city) and I did not feel like it. Plus, I had a test the next day that I needed to study for (something was telling me to reschedule the date so I did). Well, I went into the elevator of my apartment and met a guy that was from my Japanese class. He was going to study too and we had no clue we lived in the same apartment complex. We studied together that night for the test and kept studying after that. Over three and a half years later, we are now married.

#37 Screw You, Keith

When I was a kid, one of my cousins was married to this dude name Keith. I hated Keith. He had been around since the day I was born, and I screamed EVERY TIME he held me. When I was about 10 or 11, Keith built my cousin a new beautiful house for them and their two boys. When it came time to move in, he never packed his stuff, and he wasn't "ready" to sell the old house.

When my cousin was upset and confronted him, he said, "Because I have another wife and her and our two kids are moving in here. The house is in your name, so I hope you like it." He had a two and four-year-old with another woman that he was living with him part-time while he was still married to my cousin. They were college sweethearts and she was completely blindsided by it. She has since remarried and is massively content, but screw you, Keith.

#38 A Safe Decision

I was 24 weeks pregnant with twins and had three Braxton hicks contractions ("fake contractions"). With twins, I was allowed up to eight an hour, but it didn't feel right, so I went to my doctor. Long story short, I was dilated and if I hadn't gotten checked, I would've given birth at 24 weeks. Instead, they were able to hold the labor off another four. Still early at 28 weeks, but four weeks is better than 24.

#39 Pure Coincidence?

Many years ago, I was going to Paris for a five-day vacation. I was to fly out of NYC the following day. The day before the flight, I had this dreadful feeling of something not being right. It was an overwhelming and terribly depressing feeling. I was worried about a close relative who was very ill. I decided to delay my flight by two days and as I canceled the reservation, I felt immediate relief. The following day, the flight I was to take crashed, ending everyone onboard. Pure coincidence, I'm sure, and my relative recovered completely, but still...

#40 Cheater, Cheater

I had made plans to go see a movie with my boyfriend at the time later that week. I got a text from him that he was going to see it that night with some friends from work. I knew he was lying. I just had a feeling about it. Turns out, I was right. It wasn't co-workers, but one co-worker, who'd apparently been hitting on him like crazy. He'd been cheating on me the whole time with her.

#41 A Queasy Feeling

My incident happened last night, actually. I felt weird all day—like I had REALLY bad gas and I couldn't pass it. It was extremely painful. I decided to go to the drug store and get something to relieve the gas, and next door was a walk-in clinic. I figured, what the heck, and went to the clinic to get it checked out. Yeah, three hours later, I was being prepped for surgery to get my appendix removed. I'm nice and tender today...

#42 Barking Again

Here’s a satisfying one from today: I am a vet. I gave a vaccine to a toy breed dog today. He took the vaccine before with no problems. Immediately after giving the shot, he just looked slightly off to me. Maybe just more quiet than usual. All vitals were normal, but he just not quite his typical happy self. My gut said, "Ehh, this is not right." I asked the owner to wait 15 minutes before leaving to make sure there was no vaccine reaction. Five minutes later, he had an anaphylactic seizure in my lobby. I was ready for it. I conducted immediate emergency treatment for anaphylaxis. One hour later, he was barking his fool head off incessantly in my treatment room to tell me he’s ready to go home.

#43 The Sudden Stop

My mom had something like this happen once. When she was nine months pregnant with me she was on her way to work and in a hurry and rushing down the Peachtree Center Marta escalator to take the train to work. This escalator is huge, it's supposedly the longest in the Southeast. Anyway, so she's going down this thing not holding on the railings when she stopped and felt as if something was telling her to stand still and hold on.

Not even a few seconds later the escalator completely stopped. If she had not stopped and held on she would have gone head over heels down the entire escalator. There was even a man at the bottom when she got off that stopped her to tell her she was very lucky because he had seen her and knew for sure she'd come tumbling down after it stopped.

#44 Running The Red

I was at an empty intersection, and right as my light turned green, I had this strange feeling that I should wait a second before going and look both ways... Sure enough, out of nowhere, a huge landscaping truck came barreling over a hill doing 45 to 50 mph. It just totally ran the red light. If I had just gone when the light turned green, best-case scenario, I’d be in the hospital.

#45 Not Worth It

My friends were going out for New Year's, but something told me to stay home. My friends had a great time and kept messaging me throughout the night. I felt bad for not joining them. I found out the next day that they decided to drive tipsy to another party. They drove into a light pole at 60 mph. Some of them are now sustaining lifelong injuries.

#46 Parents Know Best

My parents went to a party when I was about two or three, leaving me in the care of my grandmother. After the party was over, they decided to leave me at my grandmother's for the night instead of bringing me home. That night, the house caught fire and my parents had to jump from the third story windows. My dad landed on a car and my mom slid down the drainpipe.

I would have most likely died from the fall or one of my parents would have while trying to protect me from it. Both of my parents were critically injured. My parents say that they both had a feeling of dread when they were on their way to get me, but they passed it off as just being extremely tired and decided to go home.

#47 All The Signs

I'm a five-foot-tall, 90-pound girl. In college, I was filling my car with gas when a man approached me, begging for a ride home. He only needed to go a quarter-mile, half-mile tops. It occurred to me—it was a super nice day. I hate working out and even I can walk a quarter-mile without breaking a sweat. WHY does he need a ride? I politely declined and wished him luck. That's when he totally lost it. Screaming at me, calling me stuck-up, etc. To this day, I'm convinced I narrowly avoiding being another guest in his deep freezer.

#48 The Irony

When I was a kid, I was lying down in the living room and sucking on Lifesavers, the hard candy. I suddenly started choking, which is ironic thinking back on it, and my mom was upstairs. She told me she had a gut feeling that something was wrong and came down to check up on me. She found me choking and I was literally blue. She hit my back as hard as she could and I spit it out. That gut feeling saved my life that day.

#49 A Scary Thought

I was 11 or something, and my little brother was maybe four. He was playing outside alone on the patio, and I really felt like he shouldn't be playing outside alone. I made him come inside, and he started playing with his toys. My mom told me that I was not supposed to boss him around and that it was okay for him to be alone on the patio. Five minutes later, he was still inside, and a massive branch broke off the tree, landing in the patio and shaking the house. It probably had a 50/50 chance of ending him based on where he was playing.

#50 Like The Wind

I drove up to a blind four-way intersection at night once where my lane was free to go but the cross traffic had a stop sign. For some reason, I slowed down and stopped just as a car flew through his stop sign like the wind. Had I gone at a normal speed, he would have ended me. It freaks me out to think that a split second could literally change your entire life.