By jkichton
The attacks in Paris on November 13th, 2014 leave me speechless. I remember sitting in my bed in Commugny, Switzerland when I got a CNN push notification about a shooting in Paris that left a handful of people either dead or injured. Immediately, I shared it with close friends in my program just in case they were there or they knew someone there. As news updates came and went and the number of killed increased and increased, I could not fathom the kinds of terror and horror that were spreading throughout the same city I had visited just two months ago.
My, and my other SIT: Switzerland peers’, proximity to this violence makes this terrorist attack hit closer to home than ever before. Although I lived through the 9/11 attacks in the US, I was not old enough to understand what was going on, and can’t even remember what I was doing the day it happened (I was 5). These recent attacks though, I have felt deeply. Although I am not even in France, being in a bordering country with only a 10 minute train ride into one of its biggest cities did make me think twice about my safety. Switzerland, though, is a very safe country. There have been no recent, large terrorist attacks and even its small crimes rates are low. However, I must say, living in the US, a country that since 9/11 has not had any major terrorist attacks, while Europe and the Middle East are targeted what seems like weekly, has been a blessing. Living in an insignificant suburb at home away from major cities in a country that has never has a war fought on its land since its own civil war has yielded myself privilege that I am just now realizing.
One of the victims of that horrible night was a US student, attending school in California but studying abroad in Paris. From what I have read, she has been the only American killed so far. That could have been me. Or someone else from my program. Or someone studying abroad from my school. Or one of my friends studying abroad. To be clear, she, or anyone who was killed, was merely a civilian enjoying their night. She was an average, normal, student who enjoyed traveling so much that she wanted to spend a semester the City of Lights. Much like everyone who wants to study abroad. Of course, this no problem. No one would have known that this devastating attack would take her life.
The night it happened, I began to think about people’s reactions. I wondered if my mom would want me to come home. I wondered if SIT would send us home. I wondered if I should go on any more trips in Europe. I wondered if GW would send home students studying abroad in Paris. I really wondered about safety, and how terrorism and its unpredictability and randomness have begun to shape our fears and anxieties about traveling. But then, I realized this is what ISIS wants. They want us to fear. They want us to think twice, or three times. They want us to consider them a threat large enough that it inhibits our physical movement.
Therefore, I will travel. I will have no second qualms. This may be an unpopular opinion but I will not hide in safety my whole life scared that a terrorist attack will end me. I will not give in to them. I will not let them affect me. I am strong, I am smart, I am tough. Besides, who says that another, random accident won’t instead kill me? This is a bit morbid, but I could die in any way possible: my apartment catching fire, my train derailing, my flight crashing, choking on food, tripping and hitting my head, having someone crazy and unrelated to terrorists attack me, etc. Van Gogh wrote to his brother once and said, “If we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star.” So, do not be afraid of death. It is only another trip. While you’re alive though, it would be best to embrace the trips you can take here, on Earth.
I hope that college student who was killed is having a wonderful journey to her star, traveling through something even better and brighter than the City of Lights.