FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM)—As many continue to reflect on the loss of life in Paris, some are looking to use what they learned in the attacks to help people in the future.
University of Arkansas senior Mara Harris is in Paris studying criminal justice.
Harris said she was asleep when the attacks happened.
“The next day I woke up, it felt like it didn’t even happen,” Harris said. “It felt like I was reading it in the news in the [United States].”
Harris said this was her first opportunity to understand how a country handles a terrorist attack, as she was very young when terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
“Being here now, it is a different perspective,” Harris said. “You read about the aftermath in things, and you don’t really know what people go through.”
Little did she know, she would find herself in the middle of one of the country’s most documented terrorist attacks in modern history.
“You are experiencing it with the same people who live in the country," Harris said. "You kind of feel like a victim too, even though I am an American.”
Harris said she will now use the attacks as a way to help further her career in criminal justice.
“I came to France to see how Europe’s international agencies for counter terrorism and crime in general worked,” Harris said. “[The attacks] inspire you to want to make a difference, but it also shocks you at the same time to know what people are capable of.”
Harris said she planned on becoming a police officer after graduation. Now, she wants to further her plans and work in a larger agency as well.
“I want to use what happened here, to use that perspective in the future,” Harris said.
Until she returns, Harris said she wants everyone at home to know she will be OK.
“I am OK. I am fine,” Harris said. “Now that this has happened, I feel I am more safe. I doubt that the people will do it again.”