It can be easy to fall into a routine and fail to notice things happening around you — especially when you’re at work or in a rush to get somewhere on time.
We’re often too busy running our to-do lists through our brains or, if it’s the morning, working on breaking through the fog to notice much else.
So it’s understandable that no one really noticed a six-year-old girl and her two-year-old brother roaming the snowy streets one Monday morning. No one, that is, except a heroic bus driver.
A Snow-Cold Morning
One Monday morning, just before 8 a.m. in Waukesha, Wisconsin, a bus driver named Nicole Chamberlain was driving her regular route. The temperature was roughly 18 degrees at the time, and people were getting ready for their busy days ahead. But as Chamberlain pulled up to a stop, she noticed the children roaming the streets.
“Neither one of them had a coat on, and they were headed towards a busy intersection, and I knew there was no school bus stop down there or a school,” Chamberlain told WISN. “I knew right away I had to pull over and help them.”
Chamberlain asked the kids what was going on. According to them, they were looking for their grandmother. She had been watching them, and when she disappeared into the basement for a moment, the children ventured outside to look for her.
“I picked them up and put them on my bus and called the police,” Chamberlain explained.
A Search to Find Grandma
Chamberlain waited where she was and wrapped her coat around the little girl. A few minutes later, she was glad she’d waited because their grandmother appeared and explained what had happened. In the end, Chamberlain was glad she was there. What would have happened to the kids had no one stopped?
“If that were to happen to my children, I would hope that there would be somebody, a decent human being, that would stop and help my kids,” she explained.
In the end, the bus driver knew she was in the right place at the right time. In her head, it was fate, especially since she left five minutes earlier that morning and wouldn’t have seen the kids if she’d departed at her normal time.
No charges were laid, and everyone went about their days. Still, the grandmother was thankful for Chamberlain’s quick thinking, and Chamberlain was thankful she had listened to her intuition.
Following Your Gut
So often in life, we don’t know what to do next. We’re unsure of how to proceed, where to go, or what we want to pursue. And while every situation is certainly different, this story reminds us that it’s always important to follow your gut.
That’s exactly what Chamberlain did that day when she saw two kids roaming the streets alone, not dressed for the cold morning. By stopping the bus and ensuring everything was okay, she became a hero: those kids could have gotten lost, they could have wandered into the intersection, or something else bad could have happened had Chamberlain not stepped in.
So, if you see something out of place or a situation that doesn’t quite look right, trust your gut. Ask questions, don’t be afraid to step in, and if you really think it’s necessary, call someone for help.
Our gut instincts are a result of our collective experiences, and that makes it important to listen to them. Studies have shown that pairing those instinctual feelings with analytic thought leads to better, faster, and more accurate decisions.
So trust that gut and do what you think is right — more often than not, it will be the right move.
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