“Where are you from?”
A common and easy question to ask a stranger you meet unexpectedly at a party. Where are you from….I never know how to answer. Usually, I quip, “Tell me a year and I’ll tell you where I was.” This often leads to sudden silence.
My bio says Kansas, but I wasn’t born in Kansas. I was born in San Francisco, but I didn’t grow up there. By the time I was five, I’d birthed in San Francisco, moved to Kansas, returned to San Francisco, south to Arkansas, back to Kansas. And then I started school. Life slowed for a few years, but then I married a soldier and went off to see more of the world.
published in Still Point Arts Quarterly, Spring 2016
janetsunderland.com 