I was a sophomore in high school when the break up of the USSR happened. I wish I could say I remember it clearly, but I don’t. My family was going through a breakup of its own at the time, so I doubt I had the attention span for current global events, and I’m kind of regretting that now.

What I do remember are hearing phrases like “the effects of perestroika and glasnost,” and “the end of the Cold War.” I clearly remember images from 1989, two years prior, of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the overthrow and execution of Nicolae Ceausescu. Seeing how the Romanians pulled down a statue of Ceausescu in the capital of Bucharest and thinking, “Gee, those people don’t mess around.”

I feel like the world is in a weird place right now. Or maybe it’s that I’m feeling weird in the world. More times than I find comfort in, have I checked the headlines this week to see if World War III has broken out. Depending on who you ask, some say it has. But what does that mean, exactly?