Where Am I From?

The first question you get asked when meeting a new person is, "What is your name?" Usually, that question is followed by "What do you do?" or "Where are you from?" While I know my name and I'm confident telling people I'm a law student, I usually get stuck on the last question. Where am I from? Most of the time, people are looking for a short, simple answer. "I'm from L.A." or "I'm from Minnesota." Easy, short sentences. Something that they can quickly use to find a connection with you. 

But my past is a little more complicated than that. I'm not really "from" anywhere. I moved a lot growing up, so I'm never really sure how to answer this question. My parents currently live in a place where I have never lived, so I can't rely on that for an answer. Usually, I say something like, "I went to undergrad in Minnesota." That usually satisfies people and gives them follow-up questions, like, "What school did you go to?" or "Where in Minnesota?" 

Now, more about me. I lived in Auburn, Huntington Beach, and Long Beach, California, until I was about 5 years old. Then, my dad took a job with Nestle Waters and we moved to a town a bit north of Dallas, Texas. We lived there until I was 11 years old, and then we moved to Switzerland while my dad was working for Nestle as a waste water management engineer. When I was 16, we moved to Wisconsin, where my dad was a head factory engineer. I graduated from high school there, and then moved to Minnesota for undergrad. After I graduated from college, I moved to Colorado to go to law school, while my parents and my younger siblings moved to Ohio, where my dad began working as a chief engineer in Nestle USA's food division. 

Most people aren't looking for such a detailed answer when they ask me where I'm from. My roommates in college always made fun of me when they were present when someone asked me where I'm from. I figured out that people don't want the long answer, at least not right away. So I decided to start saying that I graduated from high school in Wisconsin. When I moved to Colorado, I began saying I graduated from college in Minnesota. Then, if people ask, I will actually tell them what my situation was growing up.