If you lie about your hometown, why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people really do this?

When people ask me where I'm from, usually in a casual setting, I tell them where I grew up. I don't go into an elaborate story about how I was born overseas and immigrated here as a preteen but then grew up in my hometown because I assume people are just making small talk and don't actually care.

A very small subset of people do it, and I find it fascinating. Sometimes I have had to ask a few times to figure out where someone actually grew up. It's strange

And then these loons say you lie. They lack the inability to have any imagination that anyone did anything differently than they did.

I was born in a foreign country, moved to several others, bounced about, in middle school moved to a small city in America. Moved for college and law school. My experience isn’t uncommon and I’m small talk, I say I’m from where I live. Who has this kind of time.

I wasn’t born in a foreign country, but I can relate to moving around a lot. First as a kid for my dad’s job. Then a new city for college, then a new city for law school, then a new city to start my career, then finally to the DC area for a job transfer. It’s just a lot to go through for casual conversation and I don’t necessarily identify one place as “where I grew up.” My parents have been since moved to a new city that I’ve never lived in before, so when I go “home” to visit family, it’s not actually my home. I literally moved every 3-5 years my entire life until moving to the DC area in my late 20s. Been here for a decade now, bought a house and started a family. This is the most I’ve ever felt at home somewhere.

If someone asks where I’m “from” I usually give a vague answer that I’ve lived along the East coast, but settled here for work in 2011.

As a side note, I don’t like the “where are you from” question because I know some people take that as an inquiry into their heritage or they may not want to talk about their childhood. I prefer asking some variation of “how’d you end up in DC?” It’s open ended and people can give whatever answer they want (even if just vague like “for work”).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people really do this?

When people ask me where I'm from, usually in a casual setting, I tell them where I grew up. I don't go into an elaborate story about how I was born overseas and immigrated here as a preteen but then grew up in my hometown because I assume people are just making small talk and don't actually care.

A very small subset of people do it, and I find it fascinating. Sometimes I have had to ask a few times to figure out where someone actually grew up. It's strange

And then these loons say you lie. They lack the inability to have any imagination that anyone did anything differently than they did.

I was born in a foreign country, moved to several others, bounced about, in middle school moved to a small city in America. Moved for college and law school. My experience isn’t uncommon and I’m small talk, I say I’m from where I live. Who has this kind of time.

I wasn’t born in a foreign country, but I can relate to moving around a lot. First as a kid for my dad’s job. Then a new city for college, then a new city for law school, then a new city to start my career, then finally to the DC area for a job transfer. It’s just a lot to go through for casual conversation and I don’t necessarily identify one place as “where I grew up.” My parents have been since moved to a new city that I’ve never lived in before, so when I go “home” to visit family, it’s not actually my home. I literally moved every 3-5 years my entire life until moving to the DC area in my late 20s. Been here for a decade now, bought a house and started a family. This is the most I’ve ever felt at home somewhere.

If someone asks where I’m “from” I usually give a vague answer that I’ve lived along the East coast, but settled here for work in 2011.

As a side note, I don’t like the “where are you from” question because I know some people take that as an inquiry into their heritage or they may not want to talk about their childhood. I prefer asking some variation of “how’d you end up in DC?” It’s open ended and people can give whatever answer they want (even if just vague like “for work”).

“I moved around a lot, so I didn’t really feel like I had a hometown till DC.” I managed to condense it to one sentence.

[Anonymous]

I used to lie about where I grew up because I was abused as a kid and just didn't want to talk about anything to do with growing up, but that always left me in a predicament when people would start to ask questions or maybe were from my fake hometown. Plus I'm an honest person and lying just never felt right, so now I give the honest answer but hope that the conversation moves on really fast.

[Anonymous]

My DH code shifts by describing the hometown in vaguer terms as "growing up in Redwood City" or "the South Bay area" so as to avoid describing the very, very exclusive town around Palo Alto in which DH lived.

[Anonymous]

I went to school in the south and always just said I was from DC since nobody had ever heard of my NOVA suburb down there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do people really do this?

When people ask me where I'm from, usually in a casual setting, I tell them where I grew up. I don't go into an elaborate story about how I was born overseas and immigrated here as a preteen but then grew up in my hometown because I assume people are just making small talk and don't actually care.

A very small subset of people do it, and I find it fascinating. Sometimes I have had to ask a few times to figure out where someone actually grew up. It's strange

And then these loons say you lie. They lack the inability to have any imagination that anyone did anything differently than they did.

I was born in a foreign country, moved to several others, bounced about, in middle school moved to a small city in America. Moved for college and law school. My experience isn’t uncommon and I’m small talk, I say I’m from where I live. Who has this kind of time.

I wasn’t born in a foreign country, but I can relate to moving around a lot. First as a kid for my dad’s job. Then a new city for college, then a new city for law school, then a new city to start my career, then finally to the DC area for a job transfer. It’s just a lot to go through for casual conversation and I don’t necessarily identify one place as “where I grew up.” My parents have been since moved to a new city that I’ve never lived in before, so when I go “home” to visit family, it’s not actually my home. I literally moved every 3-5 years my entire life until moving to the DC area in my late 20s. Been here for a decade now, bought a house and started a family. This is the most I’ve ever felt at home somewhere.

If someone asks where I’m “from” I usually give a vague answer that I’ve lived along the East coast, but settled here for work in 2011.

As a side note, I don’t like the “where are you from” question because I know some people take that as an inquiry into their heritage or they may not want to talk about their childhood. I prefer asking some variation of “how’d you end up in DC?” It’s open ended and people can give whatever answer they want (even if just vague like “for work”).

“I moved around a lot, so I didn’t really feel like I had a hometown till DC.” I managed to condense it to one sentence.

Military kid here. DC is not home even if I have lived here a few years. I just say I am a military kid and leave it at that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DH code shifts by describing the hometown in vaguer terms as "growing up in Redwood City" or "the South Bay area" so as to avoid describing the very, very exclusive town around Palo Alto in which DH lived.

You can say it. Atherton.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes I say I'm from Bethesda when I'm really from Chevy Chase. Helps me seem less highfalutin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to school in the south and always just said I was from DC since nobody had ever heard of my NOVA suburb down there.

I think this fine provided it's actually a close in suburb and not an hour + drive away

[Anonymous]

This thread is good for me to read, being reminded how different and sometimes complicated other people’s backgrounds/lives have been. This is a simple question for me since I lived in one state birth to age 25 (excluding college) and have now lived in DC the past 20 years.

To all of you with more complex answers, if we meet in person, know that some of us like me enjoy hearing your full answers, so don’t be reluctant to share, assuming you feel comfortable doing so (and if not whatever answer you want to give works!).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is good for me to read, being reminded how different and sometimes complicated other people’s backgrounds/lives have been. This is a simple question for me since I lived in one state birth to age 25 (excluding college) and have now lived in DC the past 20 years.

To all of you with more complex answers, if we meet in person, know that some of us like me enjoy hearing your full answers, so don’t be reluctant to share, assuming you feel comfortable doing so (and if not whatever answer you want to give works!).

Yes. It's actually pretty interesting and I'd much rather here a quick rundown of "I lived in x till I was 8, then x till 12, then x" than an obvious lie

[Anonymous]

This thread is so weird and is more about the OP's idiosyncrasies than where people are from. It never occurred to me that so much was invested in a cocktail icebreaker question. But the fact that OP really values this question is...fascinating.

Have you ever met those people that are really invested in the use of the terms down there, up there and over there when describing cities? That is what this thread reminds me of. Some people cannot handle if you miss associate "up there" with a city that might be south of you geographically. Or "I need to do down to down to the office in Mclean" followed immediately by the concerned person interjecting "You mean over to right, don't you live in DC? Mclean is over from DC not up or down..."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did the DCUM psychic post this? The fact that this went up maybe a week before the Hilaria Baldwin story broke.... wow

If they didn't then whoever posted it should maybe think about going into that career path. Seriously crazy timing.

[Anonymous]

I always figure people are either asking this to make polite conversation and don't really care about the answer or that it's a veiled, rude "no but where are you REALLY from" question that POC get asked.

I am a military kid, born overseas, lived all over. Went to middle/high school in NOVA and then UVA, and lived/worked in VA, MD and DC for a few years after graduation. Moved away about a decade ago (military) so I say "northern Virginia" or "DC area" most of the time.

I think it would be strange and easily caught out to just fabricate a hometown. But picking one place that you've lived the longest to avoid having a long retelling of your life to a stranger seems totally fine to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always figure people are either asking this to make polite conversation and don't really care about the answer or that it's a veiled, rude "no but where are you REALLY from" question that POC get asked.

I am a military kid, born overseas, lived all over. Went to middle/high school in NOVA and then UVA, and lived/worked in VA, MD and DC for a few years after graduation. Moved away about a decade ago (military) so I say "northern Virginia" or "DC area" most of the time.

I think it would be strange and easily caught out to just fabricate a hometown. But picking one place that you've lived the longest to avoid having a long retelling of your life to a stranger seems totally fine to me.

Has nothing to do with being of color. Actually it's usually white people being squirrelly and lying about this issue, for some reason. Especially the ones that fancy themselves urbanites since they lived in a "big city" for 3 years