Welcome to On Her Own
A place for the woman who has herself together and is just messy around the edges AND the woman who aspires to be that woman
- Jane Smith
Personal Coach
Ch-ch-ch-changes
Change is hard. Almost nobody enjoys having to leave their comfortable ruts, with their predictable routines and familiar habits. We stick with them because they’re what we know, because being surprised by an outcome is potentially unpleasant and we’d prefer to avoid disappointment even if it might mean missing out. It’s understandable that we would
Night Driving: Lessons from Aimee Willard [updated September 2022]
Every time I take Exit 5 off the Blue Route, a major highway in the Philadelphia region, I think of Aimee Willard. A star college athlete, she didn’t make it home from a night out with friends back in 1996. Her still-running car and a pool of blood were found that night at that exit.
What do you want to learn today?
Much of On Her Own focuses on teaching you more about self-defense and related areas, although those of course do not make up all of the things we might need or even want to learn. Expanding our skills and knowledge is a matter of survival in many instances, but also of curiosity, of interest, of
A September 11 memorial call to action
September 11, the September 11 marking the beginning of the War on Terror, is old enough to vote now. To show my age, it was perhaps the most defining event of my generation, the one where everyone knew where they were, what they were doing, when they heard about it. Many of us watched the
Beyond road trip safety
We’ve talked about road trips a time or two before here on On Her Own. Travel is one of the most common settings for having to manage by yourself because even if you’re traveling with another person or three, you’re likely away from the space where you are most comfortable. When you’re home, it’s easy
In memory of Milan Loncar
The homicide rate in Philadelphia has been soaring for the last few years, since the start of the pandemic and the aftermath of George Floyd led to 2020 being the most violent year suffered by the city in three decades and the second highest in six. Nearly five hundred people were killed that year, and