If you haven’t heard about the attacks that have taken place across Europe and the Middle East in the past months, I must applaud you, and marvel at how articles and social media posts such as “Stand With Paris” or “Pray for Brussels”, or prompts from Facebook to place a French flag filter over your profile picture, have not penetrated any aspect of your life. If this is the case, or if you simply have been out of touch, I’ve attached links to articles on each of the larger events that have taken place since the November attack on Paris. Reading these, or rather, being up-to-date on these happenings, may be stressful; it may make you anxious or believe that Western Europe isn’t “safe” anymore. Or even that the European continent is becoming a “war zone,” as some that I have spoken to have put it. Though, based on some articles you may read, many people with pre-booked trips to various parts of the European Union are not canceling their journeys. Study abroad programs, even ones located in Brussels, have not been put on hold or advertised that their sites are closed. People are still going to these places in the wake of terrorism; not without fear, but rather with responsible caution. Which is, as many speculate, exactly what terrorist groups like ISIS do not want. And, in turn, should give everyone – especially college students with the opportunity – an even better reason to study abroad.
A few days before the explosions in Belgium this March, I was paging through a booklet on a study abroad program in Brussels that had been given to me by my school’s study abroad advisor. I’ve just returned from a four-month study abroad in Berlin, so I’m still touched with a bit of wanderlust. I mentioned it to my parents, and the next day I wake up to a news alert that two explosions in Brussels happened while I was sleeping. A few hours later, I receive a text from my mother, saying something to the effect of “the program in Brussels sounds neat, but it’s too unstable there now and I don’t want you to go.” Which, granted, is a reasonable worry for a parent to have when more than 25 people are dead and hundreds more are injured in a Western European city. But when I argue that these sort of events are the exact reason why people like me should go abroad, I’m countered with a “that is not a job for students” and “that’s why they send experts over there.” Which is frustrating, obviously, because this is a mentality that I, as I’m sure many others do, encounter much too often in the modern world. An attack in Paris. A bomb threat at a soccer stadium in Hannover. Refugees streaming in by the hundreds. Istanbul; Ankara; Lahore. (Not that much of anything east of Germany makes it into U.S. news cycles.) Suddenly Europe isn’t safe, and you shouldn’t travel. Europe is becoming a "warzone," don’t you know? You’re too young to go over there, let the experts handle this. They should bring all the students back. Which is, at least in my opinion, wrong. This is not how one should react to this.
Rather, as I said before, this should motivate one to go travel and see the world. Experience something new; interact with a culture vastly or just mildly different from your own. Gain experience so that when today's “experts” – peace specialists, policy specialists, UN workers, etc. – are no longer able to perform, you and I and the rest of our generation – arguably the first global generation – are able to take over with a new set of uniquely formed perspectives. Because we can’t fix the world’s problems if we become isolationist-minded; groups like ISIS will not go away if we just stop traveling and give into the fear and “terror” that they are trying to instill in the world. Rather, even though not all of us are in the military, or have internships at the UN or embassies or international companies, we can still use the opportunities given to us to help make the world a better and safer place. We can react intelligently to tragedy; we can learn and use that to our advantage. We can go to Brussels next Autumn and attend that seminar on European Peace. We can fly to Istanbul after graduation and walk through the markets and try out the bit of Turkish we taught ourselves a few weeks before. We can move back to Berlin and marvel at how it has changed in such a short period of time. And those that seek to close up the world through fear and intimidation won’t be able to understand why they’re not making any waves anymore. They won’t understand that their hatred and closed-mindedness will only strengthen the resolve to see more and learn more and create a better future.
