I was a social worker for a couple years. My goals were to help people and to empower people to help themselves, so they wouldn't need me.
I often thought about taking up a martial art or self-defense class. The reasons:
1. I went into "bad" areas and had the potential to be in trouble -- had a mugger wanted my purse he would've gotten it easily, but there were other, realistic fears that weren't solved so easily.
2. Honestly, I worked with unstable people. Some were capable of wanting to hurt me. We were taught self-defense once a year, then never used it. I would've liked to keep the skills up ONLY so that I could get myself out of trouble if I absolutely needed to. As it happened, the times I was in trouble involved two different boys who were both small enough that I could handle it.
3. Any kind of regular physical exercise provided me with the much-needed opportunity to blow off some steam. I worked in a frustrating system.
Hope this sheds some light on the situation :) I really hope I don't sound too bitter -- I loved my job, it just had its moments. Any job does :).
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: angry social workers?
Date: 2002-03-21 08:20 am (UTC)I was a social worker for a couple years. My goals were to help people and to empower people to help themselves, so they wouldn't need me.
I often thought about taking up a martial art or self-defense class. The reasons:
1. I went into "bad" areas and had the potential to be in trouble -- had a mugger wanted my purse he would've gotten it easily, but there were other, realistic fears that weren't solved so easily.
2. Honestly, I worked with unstable people. Some were capable of wanting to hurt me. We were taught self-defense once a year, then never used it. I would've liked to keep the skills up ONLY so that I could get myself out of trouble if I absolutely needed to. As it happened, the times I was in trouble involved two different boys who were both small enough that I could handle it.
3. Any kind of regular physical exercise provided me with the much-needed opportunity to blow off some steam. I worked in a frustrating system.
Hope this sheds some light on the situation :) I really hope I don't sound too bitter -- I loved my job, it just had its moments. Any job does :).