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.

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

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!).

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.

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.

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.

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”).

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.