Whenever you meet someone new and engage in a discussion you almost always inevitably end up exchanging the location of where you and the other person is from.
But what does it exactly mean?
Knowing where someone is from gives you a lot of information about them like their allegiance toward a football team, their way of thinking, their beliefs and much more.
But of course we're all different and if we primarily judge someone just because of where they were from well we probably wouldn't always appreciate who they were as a person.
Most people answer earnestly to that question with a Newcastle, Sunderland, Manchester, Liverpool, Cumbria, Leeds, York, Belfast and so on.
Now over the years I have had to create a system to answer that question for I do not come from one place and for people in the same situation as me, things get really complicated quickly.
People like me do not believe in the idea of belonging to a place just because your mother bore you there, it is much deeper than that.
I believe that people are from whether they feel happy. That is what you call home. Why can it not be more than one place?
I was born and raised in the beautiful Republic of Congo, in a seaside town called Pointe-Noire.
I lived there until the age of 8 years old by which time I had to leave the country because of a civil war.
Talk about politicians measuring dick sizes.
Thanks to my French nationality I was able to leave the Congo and live in France. Not everyone was that lucky but I met again with all my buddies the year after when the war ended and I was back at the beach in the Congo.
When I reached the age of 15 my grades in school were not improving and I was on the brink of being removed from my school.
So I got shipped (see what I did there?) to England to live with my uncle in the hope that I grow up and decide what I wanted to do with my life.
Needless to say that it was the biggest change I had ever experienced.
Not so pleasant at first but England grew on me. The indigenous population showed and taught me a lot.
I learned to accept people not by the way they look but by the way they were. I learned a new language. I discovered new dishes such as fish and chips, meat and potato pasty, mince pies and Yorkshire pudding.
I'd fallen in love with England and its culture. But the closer I felt to England the more estranged I felt to the country that bore me.
And then I thought why should I choose? I was born and raised by the best parents in the world in the Congo, they showed me love and taught me compassion and respect.
But I grew up in England were my dear uncle taught me to be smart, to acquire and embrace knowledge, to believe in myself and my principles as well as to never give up.
The Congo and England and France have given me something so I can't choose between them because I love those countries, maybe not equally but still. What I'm trying to say is, you shouldn't have to decide to be from one place or another.
So where am I from?
Meh...
