I was getting ready for my study abroad trip while my mom was having her totally normal freak out about my safety abroad. She kept mentioning how she wanted me to get a tracker chip put into my body so that she would know where I was at all times. I laughed this idea off, mostly because it was crazy, but also because living on campus had made me feel safe with minimal attacks on women. My mom and I came to an agreement that I would take a few self-defense classes to ease her worrying mind. After taking class, my views on this world have completely shifted and I believe every woman should take some sort of class to learn how to defend herself.
The first thing that really opened my eyes was an article about a woman that was on a jog in New York and a man grabbed her and took advantage of her. The women was my age, my height, and my weight. It took a moment to sink in how this could really happen to anyone. The saddest part is that there was about five to ten different things this women could have done differently to have stopped this man if she only learned how to defend herself.
Photo courtesy: The Boston Calendar
Everyone thinks, “It won’t happen to me,” but there is no way of knowing what other people will do. The first and most important thing that I learned was that I would have to do anything to stop someone from hurting me, including fingers in the eye and knees to the face. This lesson is hard to wrap your head around if you’re not focused on it. I have also learned that height and weight do not matter if you know what you are doing. It is possible to stop someone from every position, even if they are on top of you. Another hard lesson that I had to focus on is to be calm. It is human nature to freak out if someone is trying to hold you down, but then it consumes all of your energy in under five minutes.
Learning how to defend yourself is not just a physical lesson, it is a mental one as well.
Photo courtesy: Google Images
If you are a women in your 20s, it is one of the most exciting times in your life. Right now you could have just started college, an internship, or traveling the world and finding out who you are. It is a time where you should feel invincible. Having knowledge of how to defend yourself is so important to keep your future in your control. Hopefully you will never experience anyone being violent towards you but if someone ever would be, you have the knowledge to stop it. I was completely against the idea of learning this, but it has made me feel more confident and safe in situations that I have found myself in.