If you're an American worried about travelling abroad: don't.

Don't worry, that is; people know America isn't the same as Americans.

A long time ago, when I was studying in the UK for my junior year of college, I had an advisor to help guide my studies. He was an old-school English don, complete with a greying walrus moustache, green (turning brown) tweed jacket, and a book-lined office incensed and tinted with decades of pipe smoke. At our first meeting, he asked me to sit down in a deep leather chair, looked me in the eye, and said these words:

"Just to be crystal clear, I've never met an American I didn't like, but I absolutely hate America."

He went on to explain that in his view, America was an imperialist cancer that had shown an historical eagerness to use unrestrained violence to achieve its own ends, trampling on the rights of millions of people in foreign countries, solely after wealth and plunder without concern for others. A diplomat even at 20, I smiled and decided not to point out that every criticism he had of America could also be levied against his own beloved UK, as well as France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Russia, China, Japan, and many other countries and peoples, and would be true for every other country if they could only gain sufficient power and military might. But his words and sentiments about my homeland have stayed with me ever since, and I’m reminded of them now more than ever.

Because now, America - or, more specifically, the American government - is causing all sorts of international stress. Europeans in particular are looking at America and feeling a mixture of anger, rage, and fear. The majority of Americans seem to be feeling the same things about their own national government.

But just as he recognized that the American people and the American government are different, people elsewhere know the same thing: that America is different from Americans. And for any American readers of this little note who are thinking of travelling abroad, but are worried that they might face discrimination or attacks because they are American, I want you to know: however people abroad might be feeling about America is probably not how they will feel about you as an American. They will, more than likely, see you as an individual, and interact with you as one.

A few years ago, I was in a store in London, and after some small talk the owner asked me if he could ask me a political question. He said that he knew, factually, that millions of Americans had voted for Trump, but, in hundreds of interactions with Americans in the UK, he had never met a single person who was a Trump supporter. Did I have any idea why that might be? I made an offhand comment that Trump voters usually didn't leave their own counties, much less the country, but to me, it proved the point: people over here know that most Americans that they will encounter don't necessarily support the policies of the government. Actually, an American in a different country will probably be opposed to many of the government’s actions. People here know that Americans generally tend to be good, principled people, and if we are travelling for either work or pleasure then we are probably interested in the world and don't share the "America first" philosophy – that we have international and worldwide interests and sympathies.

But there may still be some fear about travelling abroad right now. You may be thinking that you want to go to Paris, or Budapest, or Prague, or Copenhagen, but you fear that you will not be welcomed, that people will be openly hostile to you because you are American.

Let me write this as firmly and with as much conviction as I can: people will not hate you just because you are American. The vast, vast majority will judge you not as an American but based on your own individual merits.

There are, of course, things that American travellers can do to ease their travel abroad. Most of these things are common sense: be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone,¹ don't shout at people (and, in fact, talk more quietly than you would normally; Americans, myself included, tend to be very loud). In short, be a good citizen of wherever you are going. (If you want tips on how to be a superior traveller, here you go.)

Actually, the American brand is still highly popular abroad. No matter what people might think about the government, people abroad love the idea of America, and the symbols of our country and way of life. If you were to walk down the street in any British city or town, it would take you less than five minutes to see a New York Yankees baseball hat (and it always amuses me that so many British people love a team named after a group of people who beat them in a war). The same goes with the American flag: when I was studying abroad, I was told by the foreign studies department at my college that I should consider putting a Canadian flag on my backpack, so that nobody would know I was American and attack me, but as soon as I got to Europe, I realized that wearing an American flag - the bigger the better - was probably the single best way to fit in, because so many locals have American flag sweaters and tee-shirts. Walking in any city here, you’ll see people with Ohio State and University of Michigan shirts, or Harvard² and Yale sweatshirts, and shirts that advertise made-up baseball leagues (the 1974 Sacramento Mid-Atlantic Hardball Championship League is still my all-time favorite). People still love the idea of the United States, even if they, like that professor, hate what the government is doing.

Again, everyone in their right mind is on edge right now. There are things we can do and things we can't. If we only focus on our fears, or our inability to act, then these fears and inabilities will grow.

Instead, we must do what we can do, right now. At home, protest; the more people around the world see that there are decent, good people in America acting to oppose the American government's actions, the more people around the world will see that many Americans are still decent and good. And the more they interact with decent, good Americans travelling abroad, the easier it will be for them to know that we Americans are not all neocolonial monsters. (And, if you have read this far, I think it is safe to say you are not in that camp.)

The worst thing that we can do is stay at home and let the people with official titles act as the sole representatives for our country. The best thing we can do is lay the groundwork for future international peace by becoming ambassadors ourselves – ambassadors of decency, goodness, and peace, on behalf of our fellow Americans.

So: if you are worried about how you will be treated if you go abroad this summer, don't worry. People won't see you as an American, but as a human being first.

And the more we do now to lay the foundation of a peaceful, mutually respectful international world order in the future, person by person and relationship by relationship, the easier it will be to make that future a reality when things change.

Because America - our America - really is worth protecting and defending.

1. Bianca Alba, MPH, this one’s for you.

2. I’ve also seen a number of “Havrard” sweatshirts; same font, same colors, bad copy control.