With so many scary things happening abroad, you might be asking yourself, “Is it still safe to travel?”

In short, the answer is yes! Although your first reaction after hearing of a tragedy, such as the attacks on Paris, may be to never travel again. That is not the right decision. You see, disrupting our lives is exactly what these ‘people’ want. They want to terrorize us and make us live in fear. Actually, that is their goal. They want to ruin lives as well as economies. So by allowing them to scare us into changing our way of life and by letting our fear rearrange our travel plans, we are letting them win.

Of course, we understand the fear that comes from these attacks and we want to help you understand the rarity of these events. Even though it may feel like the news is consumed by acts of terror and violence, the truth is, your odds of being involved in something like this are extremely rare.

Approximately 700,000 people are traveling by air at any one moment in time. That is a lot of people! For comparison, it’s similar to the entire population of a city like Boston or Detroit. According to Harper’s Index report, acts of terrorism caused 8 US civilian deaths worldwide last year. While each of those lives lost are absolutely tragic, we want you to compare that to the 29 people who died after being struck by lightning.

You may be angry about the attacks in America and overseas. You may be wondering, what you can do to help or even fight back. Well, let’s let the militaries of the world do the fighting and we will defy the terrorist’s goals by carrying on as normal as possible. That may seem crazy to you, but let us explain.

France’s economy depends on tourism for roughly 9% of its GDP and 10% of employment. Compare that to your own budget. How would your personal life change if you reduced your income by 9%? Could you operate your household the same if you lost 9% of your income? Imagine trying to run a country with the same decline in income.

So if we tourists let these acts impact our travel plans, the terrorists would achieve their goals, plain and simple. Thankfully, the global culture has shifted and we are all helping to take the “carry on” approach after these horrific acts. This doesn’t change the tragedy or ease it for those involved. However, it does lesson the impact on the areas whom have already been effected and allows us to help the entire world as it heals. And let’s face it, the war on terror isn’t isolated to any one part of the world. We’re all in this together.