Where Are You From?

I remember being young and never knowing what to say when I was asked where I was from. Do I say I’m Belgian? Italian? American? I would say that still until this day it is the most difficult question of all – but perhaps the one thing that has changed with age is that I can now ask myself… “What does it mean to be from somewhere?”

When somebody asks you where you are from, what is usually the first thing that comes to your mind? For some people the answer is simple and they think no farther than the place where they are in that very moment, which is more than likely the place where they were also born and where they know they are going to stay.

For others, however, it is not so simple. The question is asked and we think “Well, I was born here, and then I moved here for a while, but now I live here. . .” Does living somewhere not grant us enough to say that we are from there? What needs to exist for us to say that…how much must we identify with the place where we are living in order for us to say that we are from there?