A strip mall undertaking or a necessary precaution?:
OLIVER PULCHER ONLINE EDITOR
We have all heard the stories haven’t we? Whether in films like Karate Kid or through our own experiences, we all know the tale of the scrappy loner kid who somehow stumbles upon a martial artist willing to teach him or her martial arts in order to fight back against their neighborhood bullies. This concept of becoming stronger and more able to defend ourselves is not to us. In fact most of us, at some point in our lives, have likely sought out those strip mall dojos, promising to help us stick with our training, only to have us drop out of lessons within a few months as our young minds wander to the next best thing to come along. However, is this concept and commonly shared tale really so without worth that we can just as easily forget it and never use it again in our lives? Or is it really something that has become a necessity in today’s world? Throughout my life, though really in the past five years or so, self defense has become an important part of my survival in a world of toxic masculinity and “dudebro” culture. I have learned the hard way, time and time again, that no matter how many people may be bystanders in a bathroom I enter, my personal safety is not always a guarantee. I am fortunate in the fact that my ability to fight dirty in order to escape quickly has kept me this safe for this long. However, I did recently attend an Aikido workshop, upon being urged by one of my friends to do so. And in that workshop I did learn some very important and helpful tips that have stood to help me during recent encounters. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need violence as a means of protecting ourselves and those that we love. However, this is not an ideal world. And while not everyone on the street is attempting to harm you, there are those out there who would wish to harm us. And speaking from having experience with many of these such people, it is my argument that self defense is a necessity in today’s world. However you decide to study, whether in a martial arts program, or in basic effective self defense maneuvers, taking an hour of your time and practicing regularly could be the difference between life and death one day. We never want to think of the worst things that could happen. However with self defense training, the chance of “the worst” happening is significantly less.
