Walking home at night, going back to your car in an empty parking lot, wearing something you feel good in—these sound like basic day-to-day events that take place in everyone’s life, right? Well, let’s look at them from a different perspective. You’re walking home at night with your key between your fist, and you are constantly looking behind you because you are afraid that someone may sneak up. Maybe you’re walking to your car, and you’re looking under it, terrified that someone could be underneath waiting to cut your ankles, and you’re looking into your back windows, making sure that no one is waiting in your backseat ready to grab you once you sit in the driver’s seat. Perhaps you are wearing something you feel good in, but then get called derogatory names, and are touched inappropriately because what you were wearing meant you were “asking for it.” These are just a few of the things that women go through every day. Being a woman can sometimes feel like you are constantly viewed as a target, an object, and so many other negative things. This is why it is important to protect yourself not only mentally, but physically. 

As a woman, it is important to be alert at all times and find the best ways to protect yourself. When it comes to self-defense, it is good to know your body’s physical strength, your natural reactions to different events, and your thought process when dealing with a scary situation. This way you will know what form of self-defense is most beneficial for you, for example, if your best line of defense is your strength, you could take a self-defense class. But, if you know that in the face of danger, your strength might fail you, items such as mace, a weapon disguised as an ordinary item a woman would carry, and other self-defense items would be the best option for you. Both self-defense classes and items can be found with a quick web search on Google, so I encourage any women reading this to take the time to find the best option for them. 

Sex trafficking, kidnapping, and so many gruesome crimes have been at an all-time high over the past couple of months. Whenever I watch the news, it feels like every day a new family is crying out to everyone to find their missing loved one, and the last thing that any of those families would have thought is that one of their own would go missing. This can happen to anyone, including you and myself. This is why it is so important to make your safety a major priority because it could be any of our faces ending up on a missing-person flyer.