Take the Stairs
“I was in an upstairs lab in med school, just a friend and I practicing surgical skills. There was a main enclosed staircase down to the lobby/classrooms and a weird outdoor stairwell that nobody ever used except in fire drills. It wasn’t a fire escape but the old main entrance to the lab classroom. When I put my hand on the door handle to the main stairs, I was FILLED with a weird sense of “Get out! Not that way!” Just absolute fear; I felt trapped and anxious. For the first time in 3 years, I said, “Let’s take the outdoor stairs…” My friend had literally no idea there even WAS another exit…
… The next day we found out that at the exact time, we were taking the outside stairs, one of our classmates was pulling a gun on the admin and students in the lobby at the base of the main stairs. He’d been kicked out of the program for his grades and snapped. My friend still talks about it and tells people to always trust my instincts. I actually asked her to stop telling people because I felt so weird about it. I’m sure I just heard something in the distance that gave me that feeling, but Gavin de Becker would be proud!”