Trust Your Instincts

I'm a college student who lives in on-campus apartments. I don't usually have a car on campus, but back in February, I had my mother's car for about a week while my parents were overseas on vacation. Each day, I had to move the car from the parking lot behind my apartment building to a nearby parking deck because I had no permit and could only keep the car there from 5 in the evening until 7 the next morning.

One night, I decided to pull an all-nighter to study for a midterm. The perpetual procrastinator, I decided to wait until the night before the exam to cram several weeks worth of info in my head. A little before 6 a.m., I decided I would get a head start and move the car an hour before I usually did, to allow myself more time to study. The sun hadn't started to rise, but there was still adequate pre-dawn light. I'd kind of lulled myself into a sense of security living there because the entire apartment area, which spanned a few blocks, was relatively quiet and calm, and also, the car was only parked about a 2-minute walk from my back door.

I came out of my back door, down some steps behind my building and to our basketball court, which separated me by about 100 feet from the parking lot. Even though I think my campus is safe, any time I walk anywhere alone I always remind myself to be aware of my surroundings. This reminder came in handy, because before I continued from the basketball court to the lot, someone caught my eye. It was a man, standing right between two apartment buildings (and basically on the parking lot), smoking and staring straight at me. He didn't look like a college student--at least in his late twenties, tall, heavy, wearing a baseball cap, baggy jeans and a plaid button-down shirt. He looked generally out of place. I stood on the basketball court for a bit, as my reasoning and quick-thinking had been slightly dulled due to lack of sleep. He continued staring at me, as if waiting for me to come closer. Something told me not to continue, and obviously I couldn't get to the parking lot without coming within close proximity to him. I knew I had no way to defend myself, as I weigh about 105 lbs. and this guy was somewhere over 200. I turned around and ran back up the steps and back into my apartment without looking back.

I'm not sure if I was being overly paranoid, but this guy looked totally out of place and I've always been intuitive and trusting of my instincts. Better safe than sorry, for sure.