Sunday, February 15, 2009

12. I'm slightly afraid of getting killed while walking from school to my car after dark, so I always call someone while I walk.

I blame this fear on the mass emails sent to all the students about once a week informing us of an assault that has happened on or near campus. I have to be strategic about who I call. It's usually someone in CA because it's too late to call anyone in MN. My mom is usually the lucky winner because she's most likely to actually answer the phone. If I do call someone and they don't answer, I'll leave a really long message (Mel, hope you appreciated that tonight :) ), so that it at least looks like I'm talking to someone while I walk to my car.

I don't really know what good talking to someone in CA is going to do if I get attacked. But I figure the bad guy doesn't know I'm not talking to someone in MN, or across the street, or even the police, so it's got to be some sort of a deterrent. Also, I find at least a little bit of comfort in the fact that if I'm attacked at least one person will know and it won't be days (or even weeks) until someone realizes I've gone missing and informs my family.

2 comments:

Susan said...

I've always heard that it is a BAD idea to talk on your cell phone while you walk alone at night because then you aren't paying as close attention/are distracted (or at least look distracted and thus an easy target) and someone can sneak up on you (especially you Molly! if you have your phone up to your good ear, how can you hear someone sneaking up behind you??).

haha I don't mean to freak you out, I just want you to be safe! <3

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I agree with Susan. I usually still talk on my phone but I make a point of looking around me very obviously. Also, sometimes I pretend to talk to someone on the phone, and say things like "I'll be right there! See you in a second!" That seems like a good deterrence.