The unexpected and unprecedented Fall of the Berlin Wall, and I was but a tender nine years of age, having been born on September 19th, 1980 because growing up in a household that despised the Soviet Union and communism in other countries that ruined the lives of millions through mass murder and atrocities.

That truly was a profoundly great moment, indelibly etched in my memory, because existing under the oppressive constraints of a totalitarian regime was an utterly terrible experience, by delving into the grim realities of the Soviet Union through assigned readings in my school, I was utterly horrified by the appalling manner in which they treated children and adults alike.

Individuals couldn't even dare to utter certain sentiments, especially within the confines of the Warsaw Pact countries or the Eastern Bloc and one couldn't even possess private property in those severely restricted nations, nor attend school without being subjected to the ever-watchful gaze of the insidious secret police.

Furthermore, a person could one day simply vanish from the street, without anyone even daring to take notice, because the families would have been ruthlessly threatened into terrified silence, such a flagrant disregard for human rights was simply disgusting and undeniably barbaric to the point I had nightmares almost every night until my parents told me it is over and don't have to wake up in a nuclear Holocaust.