It happened again recently. We were sitting in a rooftop bar in Montreal, sipping palomas and enjoying the view of the waterfront, when a woman at the table next to us leaned over and asked, “So where are you from?”
“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,” Gavin 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?
By Lisa Hamm-Greenawalt
