“Where are you from?”

 

Being asked this over and over again, I’ve started to realize how this question is almost impossible to answer, at least for me it is. I panic for a few seconds, wondering whether this relates to where I was born, which passports I hold, where I have lived or where I live right now. I try deciding whether I should give the long or the short version of my story. I often find myself stumbling over my own words, omitting parts of my story out of fear people genuinely don’t really care, or will think I’m trying to show off. I have different answers to this question. Sometimes, I’ll go for the easy way out, Germany and France. Or I’ll say my mom is German, my dad is French and we all live in Thailand together. Other times, I’ll tell the whole story: I was born in the USA, moved to Japan, France, Germany, and Thailand, and while my parents still live in Bangkok, I know go to school In India.  

 

“Where do you feel at home?”

 

The beauty of that question is that it actually has no answer, but opens the door to so many at the same time. I don’t know where I feel at home, perhaps nowhere. But I also feel at home in so many places, so many countries and in so many cultures.

 

Conventionally, “home” is associated with a geographical location. But how can I answer that question when I have lived equal amounts of time in the countries of my nationality, or any other country we just so happened to live in. Personally, I feel like identity is attached to a sense of belonging, emotional connections that suggest home. But I have never actually quite felt at home anywhere, at least not longer than 3 years. And I could not be more grateful for that. 

 

The sense of feeling that home is nowhere, yet being home anywhere is part of who I am. I feel completely unattached to one particular country or culture, let alone a set of values and ideas, and rather carry my home and roots in my heart.

Home is my family.

I love being able to choose to be anyone, wherever I go. I love being able to go to such diverse countries and having a feeling of returning, a sense of familiarity in more than one place. 

 

So: “Where is home?” 

 

Nowhere. And I wouldn’t want to change that!