When you allow terrorists to deter your decision to study overseas, you’ve already let them win
Last winter I decided I wanted to make the most of my college experience and go on a study abroad trip.
I knew I wanted to go to Europe and I definitely aimed for something nice to put on my soon-to-be college grad resume.
I signed up for Food and Travel Writing in France and Germany, a ten day trip full of food, tours and fun. We will spend the first half of the excursion in Strasbourg, France, near the Black Forest region of Germany, and the second in the beautiful city of Paris.
However, I was also fully aware of the November 2015 terrorist attacks that recently devastated Paris. Now, four months later, Brussels is attacked less than 200 miles away.
But am I afraid?
While I’m sure my parents and my fellow classmates may be worried, I personally, am not.
Why would I be afraid of something that I’ve been experiencing regularly at home for the last 22 years?
Let me be clear.
I live in America, where we have had more mass shootings than days in 2015, with 372, according to PBS.
I live in America, where the Republican presidential front runner feeds on xenophobia and offers to pay his supporters’ legal bills for beating up protesters.
I live in America, where police killed more people in the first 24 days of 2015 than England and Wales have in 24 years, according to The Guardian.
These events are our daily lives, so no – I am not afraid of what could happen while I’m there.
In all honesty, the chances of a terrorist attack in America are just as high.
Visiting these crowded foreign cities makes me no more or less a target than traveling in America. If I won’t let it stop me here, why should it stop me there?
We cannot let fear control our lives. Terrorist organizations want to prevent travel and communication with other countries – isolation is their strongest tool – and they know it.
It is times like these where we must come together, when it is more crucial than ever to open our minds to new ideas and cultures.
Traveling abroad is an amazing – and addictive – experience, and doing so with classmates will make it even better.
Do not let xenophobia or its rhetoric stop you from taking the trip of a lifetime.
Chances are, if you have survived in America, you’ll survive in Europe.
Being afraid to explore the world because of a terrorist threat that can strike anytime, anywhere, is irrational.
I, for one, have things to do, people to see and places to be.
