"No!"

Last night was the first meeting for the self defense R.A.D. (Rape Aggression Defense) class I'm taking with Lyndsey. I LOVE this class, y'all. It is so empowering. For the first half of the night we went over all sorts of stuff from common misconceptions about rape to different personal stories about rape. I was truly amazed, and saddened, to hear so many women in my class of only 15 girls tell their tragic and traumatizing stories; some were really bad. 1 in 3 women are raped or have been raped. Someone is raped every 21 hours. That just proved to me how important it is to educate young girls (and boys) with this information on red flags to look for and how to defend yourself should you not be able to get away or prevent the situation from taking place. It was definitely eye opening and made me so glad to be there. I just wish middle schools required girls to take these classes the same way they require sex ed to be taught. If I would've known all of these signs and defense mechanisms I could have prevented a lot of things. It's never too late to learn, though. There were women ranging from 14 years old to 60 years old in my class. Of course I think Lyndsey and I were the best...tee hee. We got to learn different stances, different ways to attack with our hands, and how to strike. I loved punching the padded hand thingies...that was my favorite. Just that alone was a workout, I mean we were already sweating. That was nothing compared to what we'll be doing in class today. Today class is from 10 to 6pm so we'll be learning kicks combined with punches, we'll be on the floor, and who knows what else but I'm so ready and excited! Bobby had to take the course in order to become an instructor and even he said today's class would definitely be a workout. One of the things I really liked, and already had an idea about from watching other self defense classes, was how we say "No!" every time we punch or block. I felt like a little warrior yelling "No!" and punching as hard as I could. It got me thinking that I need to take kickboxing again because this reminds me of how much I truly enjoy it. It's rare to find a workout that you actually enjoy and helps you forget that you're "working out" in the first place. For me kicking and punching is so much fun. It's also a great way to release tension and stress. So, that's something I'll definitely be looking into. I'm pretty anxious to get started today, hence me waking up at 6:45 this morning. I'll be back to report on the last two days of RAD and what I've learned. Tomorrow I get to punch Bobby! LOL :)