On November 13, a tragedy struck in Paris, France. After a series of coordinated terrorist attacks, there were over 100 lives lost and millions of hearts broken across the world. Students at Arlington High School were among them.

However, a select few students at AHS truly felt this attack hit home–those who have been planning for over a year to visit France over spring break in 2016.

These students claim that although they are saddened by all of the lives lost, that they aren’t afraid to go on the trip.

The trip that originally started out as a 10 day trip has changed to be about 7-9 days long. In addition to exploring Paris, the five students, three parent chaperons, and Madame Taylor will be traveling to places such as Nice, Paul, and other parts of southern France.

Unless conditions change and the frequency of violence in France and surrounding areas intensifies, senior Kristin Estep is still planning on going, as she is not sure when another opportunity to explore outside of North America will arise.

“I don’t feel like we’re going to be any more unsafe than we would have been before it happened,” said Estep. “There’s no guarantee that it could happen again or that it couldn’t happen again. You can’t live with that kind of fear.”

Veronica Carbajal (’17) says that even though the attack was extremely horrible, she has always wanted to travel to Europe and doesn’t want to miss out on her chance to go and explore with people she actually knows.

“The Twin Towers were attacked and I’m not afraid to go where they were,” said Carbajal. “The possibility of being killed by a terrorist while offshore is really, really low. So I definitely still want to go.”

Aleethea Checkos (’17) isn’t nervous about the trip like her mother is, but since the group is traveling on a direct flight and they are tourists, they would be the first flight out of Paris if anything, such as another attack, were to transpire.

“Spring break is a long way away. Hopefully it will calm down by then,” said Checkos.