In such a short space of time this country was subject to two terrible acts of terrorism. I was in Manchester the day of the Arianna Grande concert but left in the afternoon. My friend that I saw the day before lives across the road from the arena where the concert was. My sister and her fiancé live in London. A lot of John’s family live in London. All of us could have been put in these awful situations because of the chance that we were in one place on a particular day. However, terrorism won’t stop me from enjoying my life and doing the things I love.
Over the course of the past 2 months I have heard and read about so many people who are now too scared or worried to visit larger cities. I understand that completely, especially for people with children. Everyone has the right to feel a certain way but that way of thinking is just not me and it never will be.
I remember when London was subjected to the bombings on the buses and tube. I remember reading about people who lived there and being amazed at their attitudes. People understood that their lives must go on and most went back to work the next day. How did they get there? By using public transport. They used the tube and buses. There wasn’t time to be worried or scared because people still had to get to work, school etc. Something absolutely awful happened on 7th July 2005 but it didn’t stop the people of London so why should it stop me?
I took a bit of that attitude on. Life does go on and while there are some really shitty things happening in the world right now I’m not prepared to give up my life. I’m not prepared to lay down and take it. This makes the bastards winners and gives them exactly what they want.
The thing is, terrorist attacks are happening everywhere, not just in the UK. It’s not even major cities that are being targeted. Holiday resorts have been hit hard as well. We have a holiday booked to Majorca next April. I sure as hell won’t be cancelling it. If I did, we’d be having a holiday in the back garden instead. This is what the terrorists want. Cancelling one trip might as well mean my life is over. Where else would I be able to go outside of Middle of Nowhere, Norfolk?! Norwich is a decent sized city. Okay, it’s probably less likely that anything happens there but it’s not impossible. Not even close to it.
I love travelling. I love going to London. I love going away with my family. I don’t want any of that to stop. Of course, there will always be a bit of worry in the back of my mind but something could happen anywhere. I was lucky to have some training at work recently in case I ever find myself in such a situation. I know it sounds obvious to run, hide and call the police if you can but in times of panic, you tend to forget things like this. It was nice to have a bit of a reminder.
Next month we’re heading to London again as a family and while we will certainly take caution, we will be focusing on having a good time and spending time together.