Where Do I Come From?
An In-depth Analysis About What
Those Questions mean to me
“Queensland or New York’, Antananarivo or Ipanema.” Curious names of places near and far. “Call me Anna, Bob, Theresa or Kim.”
If my origins are tied to a place, a point of geography or a spot on the map where am I from? “Um, how about, I have no idea? Or better yet, where shall I begin?
Where do I come from? In relation to what, exactly? If the origins of myself are scattered like pieces of broken glass and they transcend continents, where then do I say I came from without omitting the important parts that contributed to the birth of 21st century me? After all, doesn’t every single scattered piece make up the whole?
Can one truly answer that question without mentioning the relations that travelled far and wide across the face of the earth? Some went off in search of better economic opportunities, others in search of better human rights or to protect their offspring from impending conflict? How then, do I introduce myself without honouring their efforts?
The ones who famously hid grains of rice in their hair? Or the one-man army of an ancestor who single-handedly won a war without raising his sword? What about a distant relation of my nana who I heard, used to smuggle people to…
