This specific mural was by far the most popular one along the entire wall so the fact that Grady and I were able to get a photo of just the two of us in front of it was truly astonishing and incredibly lucky. I wanted to take this photo because if one understands the historical context, they will also understand that I was, in a way, poking fun at Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker (the men kissing in the photo), and Communist states during the Cold War as a whole. Brezhnev and Honecker actually did kiss in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in 1979. However, the kiss was politically forced. This contrasts with the friendship between Grady and I, where I am leaning in to kiss him as a joke, but he doesn’t actually kiss me back because our friendship runs on real trust and love and not performative displays of affection. This photo represents the impact of the trip in a unique way because to me, it is a reminder of how close I was able to grow with Grady as well as how much historical significance I was able to absorb, both in such a short amount of time.
