Where are you from?
In that first moment of the asking, this question flummoxes me, and my mind instantly begins scanning the options:
Does this moment call for a short response or is it open to a more developed response? Does this person want to know where I was born? Or where I was raised? Or where I have lived the longest? Or where I came from most recently? Or maybe where I am now?
How can such a common question for so many introductory conversations between people never fail to give me pause... even a niggle of anxiety, if I'm honest.
For the short answer, I say, "I moved here from Okinawa," and if questioners want follow-up, they can ask. But mostly these days I respond, "It's complicated." Because it kinda is.
So, I was born in Utah. Although we weren't a military family, my family moved more frequently than most families. I actually attended nine different elementary schools while living in four different houses located in three different states--Utah, Colorado, and New Jersey. Granted, the houses were usually situated in the spaces of the most recent sprawl of suburbia, and school redistricting occurred as fast as the latest construction was completed, so I switched elementary schools several times without moving into a new home. Still, growing up I never lived in any one place longer than four years. In my entire life, I've never lived in one dwelling longer than seven years, and that finally happened for me as an adult when I lived in Drehenthalerhof, Germany! (For added context, though, I dwelt in six different domiciles while living eighteen years in Germany.) Second ranking locations for one-abode-longevity are Ashina, Japan, (near Yokosuka on mainland Japan) and Seoul, S. Korea, and both of them clock in at five years.
Maybe I should just sum up. In my lifetime, I have lived in five different states of the USA: Utah, Colorado, New Jersey, California, and Hawaii. As already noted, I have lived in Germany (three main locations but six different dwelling places), mainland Japan, S. Korea, and also Okinawa, Japan. In addition, I spent one summer living in a dorm in Antibes, France, while attending school for a master's degree and then the next two summers living in a hotel just outside of Pattaya, Thailand, while finishing up that master's degree.
A wanderer and a vagabond, where am I from?
If the answer to where are you from is where I am now, this is where I'm from:
The photo at the top: On many weekends and holidays, I drive about five miles to run this route along lava cliffs overlooking the ocean. Of all my moments with nene geese (endemic to the Hawaiian islands), most have happened during a run/walk on this path.
Here's my nearest "big city": Hilo.
And here's my nearest town: Pahoa
And then here's my go-to beach on the Kona-side: Hapuna Beach State Park
(The fisherman showed up during the days of pandemic when tourists have become very few in number.)
