“Uhh...,” I offered hesitantly.
“Umm...?” Bob said questioningly.
It’s a difficult question right now, “Where are you from.”
How do we answer it?
We’re from Mexico. At this moment. Sort of. Except where in
Mexico? A few months in Guadalajara/Tlaquepaque, a few in Guanajuato. Next up,
Mexico City.
But we’re currently living in Ludlow, Vermont.
But ...
But we’re not “from” either of those places, because we just finished living for a decade in Colorado.
But we’re not “from” Colorado, either, because before we
moved west, we lived for about 20 years in New York.
But we’re not really “from” New York, either, because we
were both born in Pennsylvania (Bob in Mechanicsburg, outside Harrisburg, and
Lisa in Williamsport, the home of Little League Baseball). And we both lived in
a ton of different places before meeting in New York.
In Mexico, when they ask, “De donde es?” (“Where are you
from?), they are asking, “Where you were born?” We can say “Somos de Estados Unidos”
or “Somos de Pennsylvania” (We're from the United States, or We're from Pennsylvania.)
But to everyone else? Lately I’ve been saying, “We split our
year between summers in Vermont and the rest of the year exploring Mexico.”
Ask the Kids
We asked the kids how they would answer the question, “Where
are you from?”
“Easy,” Lex said. “I just tell them I’m from Colorado. They
want to know where I came here from before college. That’s Colorado.”
“Colorado,” agreed Aryk. “Except that I was born in New
York. And I live in England. But I just say Colorado.”
And that’s where we’re from. Right now. What would YOU say?
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