In a single year, two million women are raped.

In a single year, one in seventy-one men are raped or have suffered an attempt throughout their lifetime.

Those numbers are made up of incidents that are actually reported.

Rape and sexual assault seem to be a recurring incident in the world today, and unfortunately it doesn't look like these numbers will decrease any time soon. Practically every day, "BREAKING NEWS" headlines stream across the screen involving sexual assault. It can happen when someone least expects it whether it's on a college campus, late at night, a parking garage, or even in one's own home. We ask ourselves what we can do to stop sexual assault. While we cannot possibly control the other's actions, we can in fact prepare ourselves in an effort to reduce the chances of being assaulted.

Here at Bridgewater State University, a free course is offered called the Rape Aggression Defense, or R.A.D. for short, taught by the University's police force. This class entails three weeks of training where you learn self-defense moves followed by a final simulation class where you demonstrate all you've learned. Over these weeks, I learned various tactics to escape an attacker. Going into the last class, I knew that I'd have to use everything I learned: how to punch, kick, get someone off of me, and run to safety. I was nervous at first because although I knew that it was just a simulation, attacks like the one's presented in the class happen every single day. By the second round, I had enough confidence in myself that carried throughout and I knew that I could do it; I could get away.

After taking this class, my friends and I are no longer hesitant to walk alone on campus. It is known that we should always be aware of our surroundings, but taking the R.A.D. class and succeeding in the simulation, has made us feel more confident than ever. It is the most important class I've taken yet, and I'm planning to retake it again next year.

So I'm asking all women and men to take some sort of self-defense class, whether it be on your campus, or through another organization. Knowledge of self-defense could be the difference between life and death. If we prepare ourselves well enough to be able to get away, the statistics of people who are sexually assaulted or attempted to be sexually assaulted, will decrease, and our world will be just a little safer once again.