Wales and I went out to brunch, after the sun came out and the day became lovely. A street fair had blocked off about four streets - but we flew past it and ate a small blue tile restaurant, where Wales had Latikes - eggs benedict on a potatoe pancake and I had banana waffels with maple bacon. During our brunch we spoke about the whole where we've come from thing.
Wales: "I think if you've lived in more than one place - it gets confusing for you, better if just one."
ME:"How so? I've lived in more than one place, don't really see myself from any of them. Never really hooked my identity into a place. People say they are New Yorkers, Midwesterners, From the South - but for me? Never really saw myself from a place per se. When I was in college - people would ask and I'd say I hail from Kansas City, then halfway through, state, no wait, I spent my childhood in West Chester, Pennsylvania and I was born in Chicago, but have no memory of it. "
I never really identified myself as coming from a specific place, mostly because of how I was raised. My parents didn't. They both have the travel bug.
Neither felt an overwhelming need to live near extended families. And both wanted to explore. In my life I've lived in several places over different periods of time, getting to know each. 17 years more or less in the suburbs of Kansas City, Mo (on the Kansas side) - about 4 years of that time in Colorado Springs going to school. Another three in Lawrence, Kansas. Two months in France. Two - three months in England. A month in Australia. Prior to that?
9 Years in Pennsylvania. And prior to that? Three in Chicago. Now? Approximately 8 years in New York City - one year in Manhattan, one year in Queens, and five years in Brooklyn. Where do I hail from? I hail from the United States. Which section, no particular one. The question is similar in my mind at least - as when someone asks me, "what's your ethnicity?" Because for the same reasons I do not identify myself by place, I don't identify by ethnic heritage. That's not where my indentity comes from. My ethnicity is: Irish, German, French Belgium, Welsh, Scottish, and Scotch-Irish. So I'd say basically Celtic with a large amount of German thrown in. Religion? I'm not religious. Spiritual? Yes. Religious? No. I was raised Catholic but don't practice and refuse to step foot in a Catholic church (with the possible exception of seeing my mother sing on Xmas Eve). So I do not define myself as Catholic.
The long meme...gakked from everyone.
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