"Where are you from?"

“Where are you from?” is one of my most dreaded questions to answer.

Do I say where I was born?

Do I say where I went to school?

Do I say where my parents currently live?

I get so confused and frazzled answering this question.

I was born in Brussels, Belgium and lived there for ten years. In February of 2008, my family moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We moved again right before the start of my junior year of high school, where my parents bought a house in Hillsborough, a smaller town nearby. I finished my last two years of high school in Chapel Hill, so I never truly developed a community in Hillsborough. Now when I come home from college, I go back to Hillsborough, which is only about 20 minutes from campus.

This February will mark 12 years of me living in North Carolina. For a long time, I had always lived more years in Belgium than in the U.S., but now the tables have turned.

I often find myself saying I am from Belgium as my fun fact or as something that someone may find interesting because it’s not every day you meet someone who has lived outside the states. But if we go around the room stating our hometown, I almost always say Chapel Hill by default. This has always been interesting to me, shouldn’t I say all three?

Although I currently live in North Carolina, spending the first ten years of my life and growing up in a different language or culture isn’t something I can ignore or forget. It’s part of who I am and drives my curiosity to travel and explore the world.

Moving to a new place at the age of ten isn’t easy, especially not in the middle of the school year. These past (almost) 12 years have been a roller coaster of developing who I am and different life changes. When I think about it, I moved here in the middle of fourth grade and then two years later I went to middle school (oof we all remember those awkward times).

Let’s be real, middle school is a time where a lot of changes occur while transitioning and getting ready for high school. High school, of course, gets even weirder yet is a time where significant changes occur.

Chapel Hill is a place of monumental transformation for me.

It is where I formed so many bonds through school, sports teams and where I began my journey to adulthood in graduating high school and soon to graduate from college.

Sometimes I try to base it off events in my life that have meant a lot to me. That only worked for so long.

When I went back to Belgium to visit family, I was quickly reminded of all the memories I thought I had forgotten. It’s so interesting how significant the first ten years can be and how much you do still remember. I distinctively remember driving on my old street and seeing my old house, the neighborhood bakery that we would buy our bread from and the famous press shop where we would always convince mom and dad to buy us candy. It’s the little memories such as those, that shape my identity and remind me where I came from.

While memories and experiences from beyond the age of ten may be more recent in my memory, it doesn’t take away from the fact that I had a whole life in a completely different place.

Hillsborough may be where my parents currently live, but the quiet and quaint town has something special of its own. Belgium will always be dear and near to me, and remain one of my favorite places to see family and visit. Chapel Hill is a beautiful small town, filled with memories full of tears and laughter that have made a mark on the person I am today.

I will always associate different memories with different places, which are all part of me and where I am from.

So ask me where I’m from and I’ll tell you where I was born, where I went to high school and where I currently live… to say the least I’m still figuring it out.