The question ‘Where are you from?’ might seem pretty simple. After all, everyone knows where they are from, right?
However, the real trick to this question is how you define the word ‘from’. It can mean many things, and how you choose to define it will influence your answer to the question. It also may reveal something about you.
One way to interpret this is to think about where you were born. But even that has some ambiguity. For instance, you might answer with the country you were born in. Or the state, or the city. Or even the hospital.
Listen to a podcast where Michael and Lee discuss the related question: ‘What makes you you?’ We also discuss a bonus question: ‘What gives a person value?’
Of course, where you are ‘from’ might not have anything to do with where you were born. It might mean where you lived the longest. Or where you spent your formative years. It could even mean where you live right now.
It might be the case that the person asking the question can further refine the question. They may be trying to get a specific piece of information, like country of your citizenship.
However, in the absence of any such clues, this becomes a question that is really about identity. How do you identify yourself? With whom do you align yourself? Perhaps you consider yourself an inhabitant of a particular region, like the Midwest or the Northeast. Maybe you are from Seattle or Atlanta, or some other metro area. Or your nationality is your defining point of origin.
However you choose to answer, what do you have in common with the other people who hail from the same place as you? How are you like the others in your town, your state, your country?
Where are you from?
Related questions: If you could live anywhere, where would it be? Why do you live where you live? How would you define yourself in ten words or less?