Born and raised

Where are you from?

Born and raised

Always hated that phrase

Not sure why though.

Maybe because its used by people to stake some kind of claim over a location.

I was born somewhere specific i guess. I was raised in different parts of this supposedly small world that gets bigger the more I live.

Didn't go to the place that saw me come to life until i was old enough to not fit back in.

My memories of growing up are scattered. When someone talks about specific age the first thing that i try and remember is where i was back then and from there i can access my memories of that time
I was in my first country that means i was a baby or a toddler and i remember my family and not much else
I was in the isles then i was a kid, trying to learn the world meeting people that would soon fade from my young mind as the names of the streets and phone numbers 902... 912... id have to google it just to get through the first three numbers. My street, E. Wolson that wasn't the last but we were happy there. I guess that grants some sort of relevance in my head. I could still walk through those apartments with my eyes closed and trip not even once.
I was in the peninsula Preteen, an all girls school where i met the people i would forever consider mine. Three houses, i can picture each of them clearly. Why did i lower my guard? What made me foolishly assume this would be the endgame? I grew to love the place and its people. For some reason i let myself forget reality and let the fantasy of belonging take me. Five years, and i let myself grow so close to the people there that i could feel my heart being left behind as the plane lift up. Didn't think i still had it in me.

Just tried and i could go to my old addresses by zooming in with google earth from a picture of the whole funking planet

Now? Back to where we started now. This is the same city that birthed me. This is the city that is supposed to mean something else, something deeper. The first things I notice are the cars and how old they are, i can't feel shit.

I was born here but everyone calls me by the slur they use to refer to people of the other place, not even the same country. I try and correct them but as i open my mouth a feel of dejavu floods me. How many times had i stated vehemently that i did not belong back there? And why was i trying to tell this people that i did not belong here but back there? 

I was born somewhere and raised in other different else-wheres. I am born and raised nowhere. If you ask me where I'm from it'll take a while for me to decide what to tell you for its an answer that I've tried to give myself for many years and haven't quite found yet. I'll smile and say the place I'm not currently in; for your question is merely curiosity for my accent or my customs or my clothing, nothing else. You'll say you knew it with a self congratulating smirk because of course I'm from that place in particular my accent reminds you of that time you talked with those tourists. I don't mention the fact that no matter where i go i get the same question, that my accent is from nowhere but my current house and spoken by no one except my siblings. My parents kept their tongues but we were forced to adapt to each and every place we landed on.

"I was born in ... but i lived in ... and ... and ... and ..." they don't need to know that, they don't care to know that.

So, where are you from?