As a transplant from another state, and a transplant who has lived all over the country and even in another country, I often get stumped when meeting new people in our retirement community in Arizona when they ask ‘where are you from?’. Well, that depends.
Sometimes I say the name of the last state where we lived. Other times, I laugh and say, “I don’t know.” Other times, I say “From all over.”
I guess they’re all true. I’m not sure where I’m from.
This afternoon, my husband, daughter, and I were in a parking lot walking toward our car and I spotted a license plate holder on the back of the car parked beside ours. The holder gave the name of the dealership where they’d bought their car and also the name of the city and state. I got all excited because it the was the city where I’d mostly grown up and had lived for twenty years.
As I got in our car, I thought , Oh, wow, they’re from my hometown. That’s the first time I’ve seen someone from there since we moved away almost thirty years ago. How cool!
Then I realized that I thought of it as my hometown. The place where I’m from. Somehow, somewhere, deep inside me, apparently, I still think of it as home. How did that happen? As I said, I haven’t lived there in almost thirty years. I don’t have any family there. I rarely mention the place to anyone when they ask where I’m from.
Is it because that’s where I met my husband and got married? Or maybe because my mother died there after a long illness? Or maybe because I went to middle school and high school there?
If you move around a lot, as I have, what makes one place your hometown? I think my son and daughter may have the same questions, since they, too, moved around a lot as they were growing up.
I don’t have any answers. Just thought it was interesting to think about.
Yes Susan ,I can really relate to this blog! I too often wonder what to answer. I usually answer Vancouver BC since I was born and raised there . I also lived there til I was 28. However then moved to Montreal for a year where I met my husband! Then we spent our first 18 months of marriage in Oshawa Ontario. From there we moved to the states. First Michigan for 3 years,then Wisconsin for 12 years and then Iowa for 13 years. Finallywe retired and moved here to SCW AZ in 1997. I definitely consider SCW my home now and we became US citizens in 2004. It is certainly my favorite place to live and don’t plan on any more moves!