Where are you from?

Colombo, Sri Lanka

‘Where are you from?’ 

It’s a question rather categorized into general, formal way of asking our identity, yet I’ve found it rather personal since I’ve ever realized. 

I’m from Japan, in terms of where I was born, where my first breath took place, where I first spoke, where I first walked… but I’m also from Sri Lanka in terms of my parents, my color, my eyes, my hair, my roots. If I think about it still so deeply, I might also be from Africa, in terms of where my genes were first generated. 

The confusion first arrived when I was at elementary school. On my first day of school, I was one of the very few foreign students in the entire school, so it was to no surprise my new friends came and asked me ‘Where are you from?’ As if I was supposed to know, I replied, ‘I’m from Sri Lanka’, although that was weird to me because my memories in Sri Lanka were just visiting for a few weeks per few years. That evening I went home and asked my mom, “Mama, friends in my school asked me where I am from, I said I’m from Sri Lanka”, she acknowledged “Yes darling you are from Sri Lanka”, however in turn I asked, “Mama, how does it make sense? I was born in Japan, of course I’m from Japan!” 

Her explanation was that because my mother and father and their mothers and fathers were from Sri Lanka,  it’s obvious I am also from Sri Lanka. True, I looked like a child from Sri Lanka, but I talked like a Japanese, I ate like a Japanese, I learnt like a Japanese, the little girl did not simply understand what made my ‘where are you from’ different from the same children my age who grew up exactly the same way I did. 

At present, 35.5 million underaged are International Kids. They have either lived in two or more countries, or carry roots of different cultures. How are they supposed to answer the question? Name their mother's country? Name their grandparents’? Or name where their bed exists? Along with the emergence of globalization it is becoming more common to not center your identity to one country or culture. If you don’t understand where you belong to, maybe you just do not need to stick to one place that you are supposed to belong to. Maybe it can be different from others, maybe that is okay. 

So I have a question for you, 

‘Where do you think you are from?’ 

Pawani Dahanayakege