MY name is Ella Holding and I am 13-years-old.

I am writing to you on my opinion on the attacks going on around the world.

For a young student like myself it is hard to understand the difficulties in the world and why there are events occurring during this period of time.

People high up in government and presidents are all having their say on these attacks but people like me in schools are not speaking up and I would like to make a change.

I don’t want to keep my thoughts to myself anymore and not show people what I am truly feeling.

All I can see and hear about these attacks are posts on social media and the news.

Again as well as it being hard for me to understand it, is also depressing and sad for people to hear about these things and accept what the world has come to.

Countries are in panic and people are worried about what is going to happen next and where and when is it going to happen.

No one knows what the future holds but what we do know is that if we act now we are that much closer to creating a happier environment for the next generation.

When people say we want to create ‘peace’ they don’t really take it in.

It may be one word but it means so much more.

Creating peace is not something I can do or anyone really but if we all work together and each help, we will get one step closer to fulfilling this task.

If we look up peace on a website or internet you will see the definition which is: “A state or period in which there is no war or a war has ended.”

When we think of peace we think of holiness, silence and no arguing.

In the world there has never been peace, there probably will never be but we don’t know that because we don’t know what the future is going to look like.

All we know is there has always been wars and arguing.

It may be small in our friendship groups or family issues or a great war which includes hundreds of people fighting.

Either way however small or big, short or long, there has always been arguing.

Humanity is to blame.

We all have our individual beliefs, opinions and the right to say what we feel.

Yes I believe it is good to have a faith and something to believe in but because some people feel the need to take it too far, it has become a threat to all.

I’m not saying it is all of us because I do agree it is good to believe in something.

Even when we were younger we were told stories to keep our imagination alive, to behave mainly and to give us hope in believing.

As humans we all need to something now and then that we can think about when we just need that little piece of happiness and hope. Most wars though are caused by either greediness and arguing or religion.

Religion is a good example of something to believe in but some people seem to want to kill other people because of their belief.

We may never know why this is but we all know it’s wrong.

If someone wants to commit suicide then that is their choice, we don’t know their story.

It may affect their families and other people but at the end of the day we wouldn’t have known why they did it or when they were going to do it.

It hurts emotionally to know that someone would have been desperate enough to feel the need to do it but when they kill other people whilst they are killing themselves, it is not right.

People shouldn’t have had to suffer because of their actions.

We all have made and will make mistakes in our lives but these sorts of actions are not accidental.

In most religions it may say to create peace so why are some people causing chaos, the complete opposite?

We don’t know why but what we do know is that by these attacks in Paris, Brussels and other places, there are innocent people who are being killed for no reason.

As humans we are so lucky to live on a world where there are beautiful places, so many adventures awaiting us and importantly dreams and careers we all think about from an early age.

We all have a goal in life and most of us will succeed if we push ourselves. The world is a huge place, anything could happen, let’s not let it become a world of hatred and fear.

Thank you for reading.

Ella Holding, 13

Stroud High School, Year 8