Stay away from places you aren't supposed to be.
It seems to me like a large majority of people who get into trouble are somewhere they probably shouldn't have been anyway. I know, I know... It's a free country, so anyone should be able to go anywhere they want without fear of being accosted.
Should be. But there are a lot of things that should be that don't necessarily jibe with reality. And don't get me started there.
Ahem. Back to the original point.
If your instincts say 'don't go there', then you probably shouldn't go there. Convenience stores late at night, the bad part of town, inside stranger's vehicles, poorly lit parking lots...
When I was younger, I ended up in places doing things that instinct told me was a bad idea. I got extremely lucky. Getting into a car with a guy I only just met in one bar to go to another bar, thus leaving the safety of my friends' company and the ride I came in to waltz off with stranger dude. Lucky for me, he took me home when I asked. Which brings me to the other stupid thing - I let him take me to my home, so if he had been a psycho, he then knew where I lived. Or the many times I spent walking city streets alone at night. Not smart. Lucky, but still not smart. (Hindsight is 20/20 after all.)
Listen to the voice that tells you this is a bad idea. (And it'll talk to you if you haven't drowned it in alcohol. Jus' sayin'.)
And stay safe out there.
Good advice. I don't always follow it, but I'm getting smarter with age. When I was younger, I had a certain amount of alpha female bravado (and sometimes a badge) to get me through. Can't say I ever got in a stranger's car, though. Nor did I ever let anyone but a date buy me a drink. Huh. Maybe I was smarter than I remember. LOL
ReplyDeleteYeah, I really liked this particular guy. He was sexy, smart, nice... and then he invited me to do a line of coke with him. I asked him to take me home because I was 'tired', and then when he called the next day told him I couldn't see him again. He took it very well, but it could've gone really wrong in a hurry.
DeleteLOL, yep, definitely smarter than I was.
Forty years ago in England, a new-met German girlfriend talked me into hitchhiking with her, saying we'd be safe together. All my instincts said NO, but I still went.
ReplyDeleteA really creepy guy picked us up. My new friend sat up front and chatted with him like she'd known him forever. I sat in the back, and worried the whole trip to some tourist place, where he kindly let us off. She considered the whole thing normal. My nerves were shot.
I took the bus back to the Youth Hostel. No more hitchhiking for me.
Ack. That sounds scary. Good thing you got lucky and he wasn't a serial killer. Yeah, I never hitchhiked. Too scary for me.
DeleteSome people like to live on the edge. Not me! I play it safe. I watch/read/listen to so much true crime, I get spooked coming out of stores!
ReplyDeleteLOL, watching a lot of true crime will do that to you. I know it makes me hyper aware like all the time.
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