The first day of my #GirltakesMundo trip as I waited in Heathrow airport on a long layover terrorist bombed outside of the venue of an Ariana concert in Manchester. A couple days later they struck again in Bangladesh outside of an ice cream store.
Of course terrorist concerns are on my mind while making this trip especially traveling through Europe where multiple attacks have occurred. It’s been more of a concern of mine way before these attacks happened and I started this trip. On March 6th, I received the below email by the U.S embassy warning U.S. citizens as the email states of, “Ongoing threat of terrorist actions and violence against U.S. citizens and interests abroad.”
Did I hesitate if making this trip was the right time, did I consider redoing my itinerary for the 7th time and changing locations and routes (yes, a trip like this does take months of planning and changing. The #GirltakesMundo trip I’m currently on is the 6th version I drafted and it took me 6 months to plan), did I still get on the flight on May 22 and took the risk. Yes, I did all of this.
Ultimately my rationale was easy and it’s what I’ve told my grandmother when she shares her concerns with me about me traveling the world as much as I do and what I remind myself when these concerns start lurking in me. God knows my path and has laid out the plan for my life. Something could happen to me in Chicago or in the shower when I start dancing because I get into the music I play while I shower or it could happen when I’m traveling. One thing is for sure, I have only one life and I could stay put and play it safe or I could take advantage of the one life I was given and maximize my time in this small planet we call earth. I’ll pick the latter any day.
My best advise with traveling – get travel insurance. I found that especially on a sabbatical, having travel insurance was really helpful.