Peace

Hello Readers,

Today, and basically everyday, I am saddened when I look at the news and see so much hate being spread around the world. In the past week I have had to reach out to a couple of my friends just to see if they are okay, due to terrorist attacks and riots. This may seem like nothing, but to me, I feel as though I should not be contacting my friends to see if they are dead. Yes, I said it. Dead.

This is the true fact, why do I live in a world like this? I understand we have issues, I’m not blind to these problems but the fact of the matter is that hate will not end hate. Fighting hate with more hate will not solve these issues. We get angry and upset that nothing is being done, we see no change and then we act on these angry feelings.

As most of you know, I was involved in the terrorist attack that took place in Nice, France this past summer. Since then, my perspectives on these issues have changed. The guy that drove the truck through the crowd had a motive rooted from hate. He killed 86 people and left over 200 injured, some very severely. 86 innocent people…for what? What came of this attack? More hate? More fear? but, no change.

These attacks only create fear, which is part of their motives, but people continue to live and we accept that this is the world we live in. We can’t stop these bad people from doing bad things, there are motives that we cannot control. One of these motives being hate.

You are not born with hate, hate is something that you learn or create yourself. Once someone finds this hate, it’s hard to break it. We need to spread love, and love may not beat the hate but it will at least make the other side truly look like the bad guy. Once the love is greater than the hate in the world, we will be able to defeat the bad. Fighting fire with fire does not work, the fire will only grow until the world is no longer civil.

Being involved with one of these tragic situations I have developed a certain empathy for others involved with similar events. It’s not something I would really like to have experienced, but now I know what it feels like to be running for your life, completely clueless of what is happening and not knowing your next move. I’m honestly thankful that I experienced this now because I have learned the fear others experience. This is a fear that millions of people live with daily, especially in countries like Syria or Iraq. We do not know how lucky we are in some parts of the world that we do not live with this type of fear on a daily basis.

We can sit back in our chairs and watch these horrible events unfold, or we can make the decision to spread love and not generalize and not be too quick to judge. I think in America we are very blinded to other cultural issues. We hate on Muslims because we think all Muslims are terrorists, which if you believe that you’re just dumb because that makes no sense. That’s like saying all cats like water; a majority of cats do not like water but you will find a few that may like water. All Muslims do not like war and hate, actually most of them do not. So, why do we say all of them are terrorists? That’s just not logical.

As far as racism goes, whether it’s alive or dead, we need to stop categorizing people into groups. That only creates inequality. Whether you are black or white, stop pointing fingers at each other. It will not solve the issues. Please understand I am not saying there are not racism issues but the problem will not be solved with hate. Rioting and destroying cities will not end racism, it will only fuel it.

I could probably go on about these topics all day, but I think I will stop here.

I’m just saying, when are we going to stop hating on people and start hating on the problems and making them change. The only way to make a change is by standing together, which by the looks of it will not occur in the near future. The world will not change if we continue to act on hate. From a person that has been close to one of these hateful events, it does not change the problem. People continue to live, life goes on and we just accept it.

I hope this little rant will open a few of my readers eyes. I am just so sad when I see yet another terrorist attack or a riot break out. Please spread love! The world is such a beautiful place, let’s not destroy it with hate and violence. Thank you all for reading today, please share and subscribe if you share similar views.

Spread love.

xo, Lyss

Good Morning Friends,

Today I wake up with a heavy heart and the feeling of numbness taking over my body. If you have yet to see or hear the news, last night an attack took place in Nice, France right where I am staying. Yesterday was Bastille Day in France, which is equivalent to the 4th of July in the States. There was fireworks, spirits, live music and lots of people. The firework show began at 10 pm, as my friends and I sat on the beach watching the firework display, the thought of an attack never crossed my mind.

You think about these acts of terror that occur around the world and you tell yourself “It will never happen to me!”, but sorry to break you piece of mind, it CAN happen to you in a matter of seconds. Before you even know it you are following a mass crowd of people running for their lives, yet you are completely clueless as to what is even happening. But, in the back of your mind you think “terrorist attack”.

nice pray

It was just after the fireworks, around 10:30 pm (France time) and my friends and I began to head toward a different part of the beach to meet up with more friends. It was one girls birthday in our group, so we were anxious to celebrate with her. My friends Danielle & Bailey were walking ahead of me, and I was walking with some of my new friends from France Langue. For one second I lost sight of them because the crowd of people was so big, but I knew where they were headed so I was not worried, but then it began.

People were running away from the Promenade where all the festivities had been taking place, we had just came from there. I had no idea what was happening so I too began to run with the crowd but then suddenly they shifted directions, I was completely terrified and trapped. My heart sank in that moment because part of me knew it was an attack and I didn’t know what kind it was. Was there bombs planted in the city? Was it just one man? Were there others?

I had no idea.

I ran into this alley way with my Swiss friends, we huddled in this door way to an apartment and the looks on everyone’s faces was horrifying. It is a feeling I will never forget. Luckily, a person that lived in the building buzzed us in and for 5 seconds I felt safe. But then the thoughts of what is happening returned, I was in a building with complete strangers, was one of them in on whatever was happening outside? Or even worse was there a bomb? Terrible thoughts circulated my head. Finally people from inside opened their doors, offered us water and the restroom and I began to realize this was safe for now.

As we sat in the building, I called Danielle to see if she was okay and where she was and thankfully she and Bailey were close enough to come join me. Others in our group were taken into other apartments or some of them were lucky to be almost home. I sat in the stairwell of this apartment building from 10:30 pm until after 1 am. We did not know when it was “safe” to leave. We had been so close to where the situation occurred that the streets were filled with people screaming and crying, for 4 hours we heard sirens passing the building. The building did not have any windows from the stairs, so I was still completely unsure of what was occurring. We had been hearing different stories from everyone. The police told us to stay put for now.

After waiting for hours, the group decided it was time to see if we could get out. The police had us walk out with our hands above our heads and hands free from our bodies. When we got to the line of police men in the city center our bodies were examined and our bags were inspected. I was still so nervous, even with the military and police all around. After we got beyond the city center things were quiet. We all walked each other home and hugged one another, in relief that in a matter of 5 minutes our lives changed.

Before leaving the beach that night we were waiting for our group to collect, the streets were dense with civilians and we were moving through the crowd very slowly. After breaking through the crowd it was no more than a couple of minutes until the madness began. The place that we had come from was the place that the truck had driven through the crowd.

5 minutes more or less, I may not be here. FIVE MINUTES.

Before I left on this trip people were telling me not to go because of situations like so, although I am very shaken up by the situation I do not regret this trip or even last night. I am almost thankful that I experienced because it was a slap in the face about how f**king scary our world really is, one minute you think you are safe and the next you are hiding in an apartment building with strangers crying and calling loved ones. You can’t trust the people beside you because you don’t know what is even happening outside. The world is becoming a scary place and I am saddened by the road our global society is taking. Hate is not the way to get things done, killing innocent people is not the way to get things done.

When we left the building we were hiding in, I did not even think to look behind me, I couldn’t bear to see the carnage of people and police scattering the eerie street behind me. When I got home around 2 am this morning, my host mom hugged me and cried. My phone was exploding with notifications. I wanted to respond as much as I could but my feelings were numb, and they still are. It is hard to process because nothing happened to me directly or physically, but mentally I am in shambles. I do not even know how to fathom the event, I am thankful that I am alive and healthy but I am also in complete shock of what happened. It just does not seem real, once again it is one of those things were you think it can never happen to you until it does.

The world is headed down a dark path of hate and violence and it is actually terrifying to witness it firsthand. You watch the news and you say that’s sad and you go change your profile picture on Facebook and call it good. That’s not how this is supposed to work…whether you’re black or white, Islamic or Christian; this is not how the world works. We need to stand together to fight back to these acts of hate. Stop blaming one race, stop blaming the police, stop blaming others and look in the mirror. You can change yourself, you can spread kindness and love and support your brothers and sisters of a different race, religion or sex. You do not have to agree with their actions or beliefs but if we continue to separate ourselves into groups, our society is going to take a hard turn to hell.

Thank you for reading my post and I appreciate all the support I am receiving from family, friends and others. It truly means a lot to me! I felt like writing out my feelings was the best way to understand what happened, but I still don’t think I will ever understand how one person can kill another with no care. I hope you all are safe and sound, and my thoughts and prayers goes out to those who were seriously impacted by the event.