What was it like to live through the downfall of authoritarianism in the 70s-80s?

How did it feel, seeing the dictatorships collapse and look at the newspaper and see good news?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Franco 1975https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnation_Revolution 1974https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_dictatorship_in_Brazil 1985https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_South_Korea#Sixth_Republic_(1987%E2%80%93present) 1988https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reorganization_Process 1983