Where are you from?

This is a simple enough question, right? Should only take you a couple seconds to think about it.

Well is not that easy. Maybe for some people it is a 3 second answer, but I’m sure I’m not the only one that has to think about it a bit longer.

Some of my friends from outside of the US would find this relatable.

Let me explain. Where are you from? – can be interpreted many ways. Is it the place I was born, or the place I grew up, or both? What about my parents? Is it the country I came from, or just where I spend the most time in?

I’m confused. Often times, I find myself giving a longer answer to the question, just because when I just mention the place where I was born, people have follow-up questions such as but, what is your heritage? Okay so, the real question is, where are you really from? – because you don’t look local, or you look different, which is fine. I myself I have those questions too about people I find interesting or people I want to get to know more about, like what language they speak and what culture (s) they might come from.

• So, where are you from?
• Oh I’m from Miami.
• Is that where your accent is from?
• Oh no, I was actually raised in Nicaragua.
• Oh cool I know a couple people from Nicaragua!, how old where you when you first came to the US?
• Well, I was actually born here in the US, but when I came back I was about 16 years old. What about you? Where are you from?
• Oh I’m from Michigan….sounds boring but actually my grandparents have dutch heritage, and some Italian too, do you know your ancestry?
• That it’s pretty cool, def. want to visit Italy some day. For my ancestry I haven’t done one of those DNA tests, kind of shady they will store your DNA FoReVer LOL. But I just think my ancestry must be the indigenous people from Central America and Spanish of course.

To be continued… maybe.