In the month of March, 30+ people died in a terror attack in Brussels and in November 130 people died in a related attack in Paris. More people were brutally murdered in Nigeria, while on Easter Sunday there was an attack on a children's park in Pakistan.
With all of the fear being instilled in the world right now, this summer I’m scheduled to participate in a study abroad that will take place in Paris and Rome. If I can say one thing for sure, I’m still going.
There isn’t anything that is going to make me want to cancel my study abroad, so unless Michigan State decides to cancel the whole program, I will be in Europe for basically the whole month of June. And I can’t wait.
I’m going with two of my best friends and none of us even so much as texted each other with any fear of the terror attacks. We’re all in and can’t wait as we basically have a clock ticking down in our heads that’s going to end when we land in Rome on May 26.
I’m also extremely grateful that my parents have given me the chance to go on this trip, as they too haven’t said anything about me canceling my plans. Thankfully they haven’t put me in the position to make this choice, but my parents might be a bit different than others when it comes to this topic because my mom studied in Rome less than a year after the Rome airport was bombed in a 1985. To put it simply, they sort of understand why I feel the need to still travel.
Although, let's get one thing straight. It’s not because I think that I’m invincible or that it won’t happen to me. I know that terrorism is a real thing in this world, especially in Europe. But I’m just not going to let ISIS or any other extremist terrorist group change anything about the way that I run my life.
In my opinion, terrorism doesn’t win by killing innocent people. Terrorism wins when the rest of the world changes their way of life. What these radicalized murderers did was horrible, but I’m not going to let them win.
I’m going to live my life in the exact way I planned to before, and I’ll probably try and live even more to spite these animals. I’m going to take advantage of all the things in this world that these terrorists want to take away from us.
That doesn’t mean that I’m going on my study abroad expecting to run into trouble, because in all likelihood, I’m not going to see any issues and I’m probably going to have an amazing time. I’m saying that I didn’t even think once about not going, but nowI want to go more than ever.
Everyone saw the people of Paris after the attacks. The French were told to stay inside and wait for until all was clear and safe, but naturally, they did the exact opposite. They formed an impromptu parade to remember the victims and also symbolically told any terrorists that they could not take their city from them.
That’s how I feel. So I’m going to Paris and Rome this summer. If you also had any plans to go see Europe, I hope to see you there. I’ll be the tall, ginger kid seeing everything that I can possibly see and doing everything that I can possibly do. I hope you’ll join me.