This is your permission to be rude if something doesn’t feel right.

Yesterday at 10 pm, I was chilling in my car watching a YouTube video in a near-empty parking lot. A man approached and signaled for me to roll down the window.

I cracked the window and he asked if I could jump his car a few spots down from me. I said I didn’t have jumper cables, and he said we could use his.

Now the thing is, he seemed like a totally normal man in his mid-late 20s. He was polite, he smiled. But I didn’t like the scenario. I didn’t like that it was so late and that there was no one else around.

So I told him yes, rolled up my windows, and drove off.

He was not in a life or death situation. He has a phone, can flag down another person, or walk a block to the gas station to ask for help.

He was probably baffled and thought I was rude. But at the end of the day, he’s a stranger, and it doesn’t matter what he thinks of me. He wasn’t in immediate danger, and I didn’t like the situation. So I left.

Edit to add:

A lot of women here are rightfully saying to trust your intuition in a scenario like this. While that’s 100% true, that wasn’t necessarily the case for me here.

Honestly, the vibes were fine. I felt calm the whole time, and for a moment I did almost consider helping him. But when weighing the facts, I realized the safest option was for me to just leave.

So while yes, it’s absolutely vital trust your gut when it’s telling you to leave, it’s also important to realize when you’re in a potentially dangerous situation – even if your gut feels fine.