“WHERE DO YOU COME FROM?”
photo by Sarah Richter
The ever trivial question people ask…
I love it how my answer shatters their desire to label me and frame me in a certain culture, a certain space. I love it how they roll their eyes when I list the three nations I belong to, in one form or another. I love it how they get more intrigued and they shoot this next question “I mean where were you born?” Not sure what this could tell them about me, say if I answered “my mother delivered me on a flight above the Pacific Ocean?” Is my identity defined by my birth place and/or by my parents’ own identity? What if I was orphan? What if I renounced my “birth” citizenship, like the trend in some nations lately?
We are all citizens of this world, and for the ones of us who were blessed with different opportunities, we each get to decide which country, or countries we identify with most, regardless of where we started this journey on earth. The answer to “where do you come from?” is a complicated one and perhaps difficult to understand for someone with one single nationality. It may sound impossible that one can defend, promote, support and show devoted love to more than one nation, but for anyone privileged by such situation, it feels exactly the same as expressing all those same feelings towards more than one person in your life, each of which is very close to your heart. I am not philosophizing, I am speaking my heart and my mind; this is how I feel being myself indebted to 3 great nations, and the way some could vilify and demean my feelings does not touch me and can’t change my story and my life.
It is an honor and a blessing to be able to serve more than one nation. It does not take away your right to feel patriotic towards any one of them, nor does it make you lose your identity nor should it contest your integrity, or disparage your dignity. If anything, it highlights the veracity of your feelings, how genuinely you are true to yourself, it makes you richer, wiser, more fulfilled, more open minded and very very thankful.