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Slack.com slash DHQ. I think when I think about my childhood, it feels split. There's my

childhood in Moscow and my childhood in Armenia, which came at the time of the collapse of

the Soviet Union. So my first memory is of us standing in bread lines. Second memory

is of us collecting bottles. My brother and I exchanging them for our food. This is National

Geographic photographer, Deanna Marcosian. And in Armenia, my memories are of us with my family,

my extended family, playing cards, wearing all of our winter clothes at home because there

was no electricity. My family went from my parents being professors, PhDs, to my father,

to painting, nesting dolls, selling them on the red square. He would sew Barbie dresses

and sell them on the black market. And my mom, I think my mom just felt like the dream

that she had for her country became the prison, though her kids were living in.

And then one night, Deanna's mother wakes her up and tells her they're going on a trip.

And she asked me to pack all my important belongings. And I had this little backpack with

Bambi on it. My dad bought for me for the first day of school and I placed a doll, her

clothes, and she gave me a ticket, my boarding pass, and asked me not to open it. And we

boarded the flight and I didn't know where we were going.

I'm Peter Glyn and you're listening to Overheard, a show where we eat, drop on the wild

conversations we have here at National Geographic and follow them to the edges of our big,

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