Ever since I knew what an airplane was, I would tell you that one day, you would find me in Paris or London. I mostly blame this on MaryKate and Ashley Olsen, for making me believe that I would find out I have an aristocrat relative in Europe and frolic the streets with random French boys.
I took French classes in high school to prepare and even took a trip to a French-speaking province in Canada to brush up on my language skills. I'm embarrassed to admit that every now and then I would reminisce and watch Lizzie Mcquire, just to make sure I knew what to do if approached by an Italian pop star. Just kidding, I'm not even a little embarrassed.
Then came 2017. All my training had brought me to this moment. I was ready. I was a fashion student about to go study in Milan, Italy, which happens to be the fashion capital of the world. I was elated; however I quickly learned the rest of my friends and family were not. Every single time I would tell people about my summer plans I would get the same response. Every. Single. Time.
"You ought to be careful, a young American girl like you."
"Oh my, all by yourself?"
"Don't make friends with strangers, that's how girls like you disappear."
"They hate Americans, why would you do that?"
And my favorite. "Have you seen Taken?"
When the time came for me to get on a plane and fly across the world, my excitement had turned into fear. All the words people would say would always come to mind. I was terrified.
I was convinced that everyone was going to be out to get me.
I was sure the driver from the car service was really a spy trying to steal me. I was almost positive that someone would watch me walk to class the next day and snatch me. I felt that while I would be out in the city, I would be followed. I was convinced that when I went out with friends at night, every move I made was being noted by some creep.
I spent a large portion of my trip looking over my shoulder waiting for something bad to happen, but the longer I was there, the more I realized something. Everyone was warning me against something that they had never done themselves.
They were scared of the unknown and projected that fear on me.
All this isn't to say that a traveler, especially a young woman, shouldn't be cautious when traveling. Lots of very real, scary things happen every day, which people did not hesitate to share with me.
What they didn't tell me is that the driver from the car service helped me through the foreign airport and on the way to my apartment told me the best places to eat in the area. No one mentioned how sweet the baker on the corner of the street would be every morning while I was walking to school. No one shared how curious the people of Milan would be about my studies and how many nice conversations I would have with natives about their culture.
No one told me the life long friends I would make from all over the world. No one explained how, one night, I would find myself on the canals of Venice in a gondola, with everything so quiet you could only hear a pin drop, and the sounds of the water brushing up against the hundreds of years old stone on the houses of Venice.
The point is, what I have learned thus far being a millennial is that generations older than us will love to tell us how scary the world is. They aren't wrong, but most of them haven't experienced any of it. Don't let people who don't know tell you how to live. If the world is big, all the more reason to go.
