Today I went on an excursion with my advisery to the
North Shore Dojo in Glenview to learn basic self defense techniques. And wow, it was most definitely not what I expected. Sensei Jeff taught us to not only avoid dangerous situations but how we can maneuver our way out of dangerous spots, even when facing a 200 lb. male. He did not mince words. Within the first couple minutes of entering the dojo we were told that "can't" and "sorry" were not allowed to be in our vocabulary and that there was no f***ing around. He had no filters for profanities and sexual references. He tried to scare us, anger us, and empower us.
Within a half hour of his incessant drilling and ferocity to the slightest giggle, I realized that learning to defend myself was not just to protect my physical and mental health, but also to protect my civil liberties.
It's not fair that rape and assault is so common on college campuses around the world. It's not right that a woman is raped every 6 minutes...day and night. When one is sexually assaulted their freedoms of life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, speech etc. are put on hold. The individuals life is unwillingly held in the hands of another.
Now that I know basic wrist, nose, ear and head jabs, I feel somewhat more liberated and able to exercise my rights.
At the end of our two hour training session we each were called upon to break a relatively thick wooden board with our bare hand (as if it were an attackers face). After i slapped it and failed several times, only succeeding in a very bruised and red hand, I got angry. The anger I experienced was the exact emotion Sensei Jeff had been trying to instill within each of us the entire time. It is not okay to allow your civil liberties to be taken away (by assault or any other way) and you have to learn to protect yourself and mean it.
The empowerment I felt when I slammed the board and cracked it in half was unreal. The experience added to my confidence in my abilities to defend myself and my rights. Everyone deserves to have the same confidence.
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Carolyn, it's really cool how you took the civil liberties to a literal meaning. I think that most of the time the civil liberties cases that we were presented with in class were very focused on using words rather than actions. I like how you changed that up a little bit and used a physical aspect.
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