Throughout the past several years, especially in the past year, our world has experienced horrible terrorist attacks. From the 9/11 plane crash to the Paris massacre to the San Bernardino shooting, the world has struggled to recover. But, has terrorism ruined the once simple actions we did in our lives?We now have to be more cautious doing simple things that we had easily done before. Riding an airplane has become a riskier task to do than ever before; we have to go through security, get our luggage checked, and must show our boarding passes and passports countless times before riding the airplane.

Even when going to a restaurant or a movie theater, we consider that 1% possibility of being victims of a terrorist attack. We take into account of seeing an unaccompanied backpack at a train station, meeting strangers on the street, and walking into a busy building. These “what if” situations are in all of our heads, and are there for a reason.

For example, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has recently shut down over 900 schools. One email threat from an anonymous Los Angeles citizen claimed to attack several schools in the LA district. How does this one email determine the shutdown of virtually a thousand schools?The answer has sourced to the San Bernardino shooting along with the multitude of other hurtful attacks in the U.S. that led to this critical decision. The government has taken into precaution the terrorist attack that California as a whole experienced.

Our perspectives have altered from viewing life through our eyes to viewing life through the eyes of people who have been victimized by terrorist attacks. We as human beings have adapted to living in a world of war and terrorism. We have succumbed to the idea of terrorism in such a way that we understand these possibilities in our daily lives. The impact of this crisis shows how much this world has been affected by terrorism. All in all, are our lives now influenced by terrorism, and are we ever going to recover?


<Elissa Kim, Saint Brendan Schoo 8th Grade>