I was born in a small, midwestern town and moved with my family to Norfolk, VA when I was 14 months old. We lived in the Hampton Roads area until my dad received orders to Heidelberg, Germany, which was a few months before my 12th. birthday. We lived overseas for 3 years and attended DoDDS schools. During this time, we were able to visit the small town in southern Germany where my mother and her family lived after being displaced from Hungary during WWII. The old wooden crucifix in the corner of the one room they shared for 7 years, which can be seen in the only Christmas photograph they had taken as a young family, was still hanging in the same corner of that same room in the very house of the same farming family she knew as a child. We were also fortunate to be able to visit some of her remaining relatives in Budapest and Szeged during the summer of 1986. Although she left Hungary when she was just 3 years old, my mother is still able to speak, read and write Hungarian, which was especially helpful while visiting the then communist country. Being one of six children, I didn't grow up with a lot of "extras" like other children of my generation. But even still, seeing how much you have in comparison to what little people in a communist country are able to have, is a valuable experience every young person should witness. As a kid, you'd loved to be able to play Atari and watch MTV (when they actually had music videos) and watch movies on a VCR, but we didn't have the money for those things. Heck, I didn't see anything in color until I was 14 years old. We just watched a plain, rabbit-earred, black-and-white TV until my parents bought my sister's old boyfriend's used color TV for $40. I was so AMAZED the first time I saw "The Wizard of Oz" in color. The Horse of a Different Color was actually CHANGING COLORS!!! (I had no idea what they meant for all those years seeing it in B&W). As an adult, I am grateful for not having all those distractions as a kid. I was able to tune in to my imagination and creativity, and in turn, those are the gifts which helped me through many difficult situations throughout my growing up and even now. Children need to use their imagination and be creative and express themselves. It's ok to be "bored" and not have technological distractions sometimes so they can tune in to themselves.