When first meeting a group of people, the question of “Where are you from?” inevitably comes up in conversation. This seems to happen the majority of the time, no matter who is doing the talking. While most people have a straightforward answer, for some this is pretty difficult. What counts as “from?” It would be nice for those of us who have moved around a lot to have a set definition of that one little word. Is it where you lived the longest? Where you were born? The place you liked the most and would, consequently, like to claim as your home? That last one might end up upsetting those who were born and raised in the same place, but it still stems from the same question: what does it mean to be “from” somewhere?

I think that being from somewhere has a lot to do with the memories that are made in that certain place. What things of significance happened while you were residing in a certain state? Memories play a huge role in all of our lives, and I believe we will be partial to calling a place home if it was where we were born, where we learned to walk, to ride a bike, or where important life lessons were learned like who your real friends are and how to make it through the bad times. Being “from” somewhere doesn’t mean that you have lived there all of your life. If that was the case then most people wouldn’t really be “from” anywhere. So many people move today in the super-connected world we live in. I think that to a certain extent, we are all from lots of places. While we may not all have moved across the country while growing up like I did, most people have lived in more than one house. I think we take a little piece of everywhere we have lived in the form of memories. We may be from the house we were brought home to from the hospital, the nursing home we might live in during our final years, and everything in between. We may be from Germany, where dad was stationed when we were little, and then from Wisconsin, where we went to high school. To a certain extent, we are all from everywhere - and that makes it a lot easier for those of us who have a long answer to this question.

So where are you from? For me, it is a combination of different places - even entirely different regions of the United States. It is eight houses in different states and the different people I met in each place. It is different histories and memories and teachers and friends. I am from several different places, and that’s okay. It makes me who I am.