#screwed

I taught a self defense class for a group of women here in the North Shore area of MA. Truly phenomenal group, mind you. They were engaged, excited, and very open minded. They were hungry to learn, and that is the kind of group I LOVE to work with!

Right as we were about to get started one of the ladies came up to me and said “Now, isn’t it true that if someone really wants to hurt you.. you’re just screwed right? Like, there’s nothing you can do?”

That right there, is a stark reminder of why I got on a plane and left my family for five days… because if I hadn’t, that woman would probably have continued her life accepting that idea. “I’m defenseless, there’s nothing I can do.”

Look, self defense sucks. It really does. It can get ugly fast. Even if you survive, you can leave the situation with long term damage both physically and psychologically. There’s no sugar coating that. If you decide to fight back, you might lose. There’s no lying about that. It’s gambling. Any decision you make is a gamble. But when you take “fighting back” off of the radar you are leaving all of the odds in the bad guys favor.

If you go through life thinking “there’s nothing I can do” you are literally a walking victim. You are tossing your life into the air and hoping it turns out for the best. That’s no way to live.

You have to take a second right now and give yourself permission to fight back. Embrace the fact that sometimes violence IS the answer. And you are not about to let someone try to maim you, rape you, or kill you without one hell of a fucking fight.

Size, strength, skill, matters, yes, but dammit it isn’t the final word.

Ask Kelly Herron if there was nothing she could do when she fended off an attacker in a bathroom in Seattle. Her battle cry was “Not today, motherfucker!!!”

That is the attitude we need to instill in the women of today. That is the attitude you should teach your daughters, your sisters, your wives, your mothers. No one has the right to take you from this world. From your friends. From your loved ones. Fuck that!

Please, I beg you. Take two seconds right now and get your mind right. No one gets the best of you without going through hell in the process. You have to own that. You have to dig down deep and make that your purpose.

“Better to die fighting than die on your knees!”

Stay safe, train hard, one love.

  -aaron