HOT TOPIC TUESDAY: Trust Your Gut

Contemp April Henry's gripping novel GIRL, STOLEN hits the shelves today. You'll be hearing much more about this suspenseful page-turner tomorrow in our Spotlight Wednesday feature.

But briefly: 16-year-old Cheyenne Wilder is resting in the back seat of her stepmother's Cadillac Escalade, ill with pneumonia, while her stepmom runs into the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for her. When Griffin carjacks the Escalade as a gift for his father, Cheyenne, who is legally blind, ends up a hostage who must rely on her own devices to try to save herself.

April says: "Cheyenne might have saved herself if she trusted her instincts and jumped out of the car first thing."


I don't know about you guys, but it's taken me a LONG time to learn to trust my instincts. I can't tell you how many unfortunate situations I might have avoided as a teenager - and as an adult - if only I'd paid attention to that nagging feeling in my gut. The one that warned, "Oy, Sarah, there's something not quite kosher about this," or "Saraleh, use your kop.(head) This isn't the smartest thing you've every done." My gut talks to me like a Jewish mother. It must be in the genes.

From The Contemps

The face of my Gut Instinct. Yes, my gut sounds kind of like Golda Meir.

Like when my cousin from the West Coast encouraged me to use Sun-In so I could get California Girl highlights. Despite the gut misgivings, I allowed her to spray half a bottle of the stuff on my long, brunette locks. At the end of the day, I ended up with seriously brassy hooker hair. Growing it out took forever and it wasn't pretty. My parents finally paid for me to have it dyed dark again because they didn't want me to look like a slut at my cousin's bar mitzvah.

(Okay, maybe it wasn't quite this bad, but it sure felt like it)

Even as an adult I've stupidly ignored my better instincts. When I started trying out the whole on-line dating thing after separating from my ex-husband (there's a book in that someday - a comedic horror novel) I could have avoided the Date from Hell with Bleeding Ear Guy had I heeded the rumblings of reservation in my tummy. Instead, I was too worried about being impolite and hurting the feelings of some psycho, who yes, really did have blood pouring from his ear when we met for our date.



There were a few times I did trust my instincts, and it was the right decision. Like when that guy I had the wildest crush on in high school was trying to get me to give up my virginity to him at the State Drama competition. I trusted my gut when it said, "No, bubbeleh. This should be something special with someone you really love." Boy was I glad later that night, when I saw him making out with my best friend at the cast party. Well, maybe glad is pushing it. Truth be told, I cried hysterically for hours and might have ended up having a teensy bit too much to drink. But the good news is that I didn't make a HUGE mistake.

How about you? Have you managed to avoid a bad situation because you trusted your guy? Or did you end up in a sticky situation because you didn't?

Spill all in the comments.

EDITED: Here's a further, somewhat more serious discussion about Trusting Your Gut over at my blog. xo Sarah