Following the recent terrorist attacks in Ankara, Turkey, and Paris, different stories arose expressing the “what if”s of the situations.
I was supposed to be there that day.
If this happened one day later, I would have been there.
I walked that street every day, but for some reason, I chose a different route that morning.
There are always stories of people wondering what could have happened if the situation was just slightly altered from reality.
I had that moment Tuesday when I woke up to CNN alerts on my phone informing me of explosions at the Brussels Zaventem Airport in Belgium.
If this were to have occurred three days later, I would have been at that very airport, potentially among the more than 30 dead and 100 injured due to a terrorist attack carried out by the Islamic State group.
This week is Semana Santa, or “Holy Week,” throughout the Catholic world. It serves as spring break in Seville, Spain. I have traveled to Italy to visit Rome and Florence, and I will be in Venice by evening today.
At the end of the week, we will fly home to Spain. We were hoping to add another city on our “visited” list along the way.
My friends and I purposefully bought tickets with a nearly eight-hour layover in the Brussels Airport with the goal of leaving for a couple of hours in search of an authentic Belgium waffle.
That silly dream disappeared Tuesday as reports of more deaths and confirmation of the explosion being a terror attack poured in.
On Tuesday morning following the news, we just continued our day exploring Italy. We knew our parents were not even awake yet to learn of what had happened.
We visited the Accademia Gallery, famous for Michelangelo’s “The David,” after breakfast, and during our two hour wait in line the situation grew and grew.
We contacted our program in Spain, and they told us we should not keep our original flight under any circumstances. Our files were all flagged and were kept on constant communication until we successfully booked another flight, avoiding Belgium all together.
We received an email from our program at one point in the day asking if we knew anyone who could potentially be in or around Brussels. They were trying to confirm everyone’s whereabouts.
As of Tuesday evening, I did not know anyone in Brussels, but the “what if” stories are starting to pile up.
This event made me push myself to acknowledge the chaos of the world around me.
When someone reads about a tragic event that occurred in a different part of the world, or even in a different neighborhood, they always think of the situation in a personal context. The proximity of the action, however, is rarely present.
Today I had a realization of both human interest and proximity, making me really think of the “what if” of the situation.
There are currently no IU students studying in Brussels, IU spokesperson Mark Land said in a statement.
This doesn’t stop me from worrying about the safety of my IU family in addition to friends from other colleges in this time of unease.
Going abroad offers nothing less than unexpected experiences.
Sometimes reality reminds us not every experience may be positive.
