Where are you from?

Seems like a pretty simple question on the face of it. And, I am sure, there are people who were born in one place and lived there all their lives until they got married or went to school, or even remained there after those milestone events. 

But then there is me.

Born in one town, moved to another by the time I was two, then another and another and even two states in Kindergarten and first grade, then back to my birth state and from one extreme end to the other of California. 

As I meet new people and they ask where I am from I have started sharing less and less that I am originally from the Golden State and tend to say how long I have lived in the Tar Heel state. Because I have now lived here longer than the state 'I grew up in', even though I had two detours as a child and another as a young adult in college. I am not being evasive, it's just so much simpler to say I've been here 22 years than the typical conversation which goes something like this.

Q: Where are you from? 
A: California, originally.
Q: Oh, really? What part?
A: Bay Area mostly?
Q: Which city?
A: Santa Cruz was where I was born, I lived in five zip codes in and around there before moving to Illinois
Q: What part?
And so it goes....Michigan back to California, then Utah for college, back to California and finally to North Carolina. Which having called home for 22 years is where I am thinking I 'come from'. It is where I have developed my adult self, raised my children, made key decisions and really become who I am here. Which is not to say that I did not bring key elements of the areas in which I was raised and those experiences did not help shape me, but where do I (bright red, bold, capitalized) come from? 

I come from the decision tree of each crossroads in my life, of the choices I have made and the way I have dealt with the not so pleasant aspects and recognized the wonder and gifts of each day. I come from the choice to get up and do this thing call life day after day and not thinking that anything is being done 'to me' but rather that I have the choice to find the bliss in situations or to be bogged down in difficulties. I come from a place of happiness, of joy, of ME. 

So now I must ask...where are you from?