06/10/2025
I came across a concept known as de-fanging the snake years ago when taking a knife fighting class. It was something to keep in mind when facing an attacker that also had a weapon. The premise was simple: if you can sever the muscles/ tendons on the inside of the attackers forearm— or sever their fingers— they would be unable to hold the weapon, and you could retreat to safety.
The class didn't turn me into a trained assassin. And I did not become a vigilante looking to start knife fights with questionable individuals.
But it pays to know how to protect yourself. And I still hope to one day take up martial arts. My excuse is that I constantly get hurt. And this often interferes with my work and other ambitions.
This said, I love the concept. Take the power away from your enemy. I am lucky enough to have fought for my life on numerous occaisons, have had a select few people back me up, and been rewarded with a new chance to live and the opppurtunities that come with it.
I am no longer being traficked. My traffickers are dead, and I have the blessing to create a new life for myself. This is a chance that almost all of the others who were with me in my situation did not get, and never will. I do not take this for granted.
The serpent was slayed. But I'd be lying if I said that was the end of it. Coming out of being trafficked, it's as if the snake bit me and I cut off it's head— but never pulled the fangs out.
Everywhere I went I saw remnants of the past in the body langugage and tone of other people. Everything I saw was through the glasses I had been forced to wear for 11 plus years.
So I take the fangs out, because if I don't— I can't create the life I want for myself. I can't have it both ways. I can't remain in the agonizing-yet-familiar comfort of my past. Allowing the fangs to reside in me, only keeps me trapped in a place I was but never wished to be. It only feeds the demons of my past, giving them power over me long after their death.
