Friday the thirteenth is notoriously known as the unluckiest day on the calendar. This year was no exception and a senseless tragedy occurred in Paris and innocent lives were lost. On Fri. Nov. 13, 2015, the city of Paris was attacked by terrorists. The attackers simultaneously set bombs off around the city, engaged in mass shootings, and took hostages and engaged in a shootout with police until the early hours of Saturday morning.

The places that were chosen as attack sites were a soccer game, a concert hall, and a café. These places were filled with plenty of innocent and unsuspecting people who were going about their daily lives and enjoying themselves.  To date, it is said that the attacks have killed over 130 people and many more people who were injured were listed in critical condition. In addition to the innocent victims, seven of the attackers were killed during the tragedy.

To begin to put this tragedy into perspective, this country has not seen this level of violence since the end of World War II over fifty years ago. Around the world, other cities took precaution by ramping up the security in their airports to ensure that everyone remained safe.

A positive that has come out of this tragedy, however, is that there has been a clear sense of humanity that has emerged amongst the people of the world—no matter their ethnic background. Around the world, many countries have lit up their own national monuments with the colors of the French flag in order to show the solidarity of the human race.

Here at PC, a place that encourages diversity, there are a large number of foreign students who come here to further their studies. With that being said, there is a large amount of French students who are here and who were directly affected by this senseless tragedy. One of those students is Mattis Rey. Thankfully, Mattis does “not have any family in Paris and everyone is safe.”

However, Mattis and his family were very close to the city of Paris. “My family and I live in Lyon, which is the second biggest country, and that state of emergency is the same as in Paris because Lyon is a huge target for those people.”

It is clear that the entire country of France is under strict guidelines to help deal with the onset of these attacks and to help the country begin to move forward and progress after an attack of this magnitude.

When asked how the people of his home country were dealing with this unspeakable tragedy, Mattis said that “people in the big city have to deal with the feeling of fear.” People have to live in fear that they will suffer another attack, or worse, that their lives will never be the same. This attack could have happened anywhere in the world, which leaves people on edge and is bringing about a lot of fear.

However, during times like this, humanity tends to build a solid front and people tend to stick together in the face of tragedy. Hopefully, one day soon, we will not have to worry about terrorist attacks and senseless tragedies and the world will be able to come together as one, despite any cultural differences.