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Related to whether he was a Californian or Midwestern writer, I’ve always felt that wherever you went to high school was where you grew up/was home. I moved all

Related to whether he was a Californian or Midwestern writer, I’ve always felt that wherever you went to high school was where you grew up/was home. I moved all over when I was a kid but because I went to high school in Seattle, even though I was only really there for those 4 years, when anyone asked me where I’m from that’s where I will always say.

publicola1990 6y ago
While rest of the world wonders why Americans consider High School as the most important part of their lives.
- cafard 6y ago
  It can be a defining time of one's life without being the most important.
- jhbadger 6y ago
  It seems the Japanese at least share the obsession given how much anime and manga is set in high school. But it makes sense, really. It is both the end of childhood and the beginning of one's adult years, and therefore an important transitional event.
burlesona 6y ago
That’s an interesting observation. I have the same issue, moved as a kid and as an adult and don’t know what to say when people ask me where I’m from. I do usually say the place I spent 4 years of HS, but I think I only say that because my parents stopped moving at that point and still live there, so that’s where I “go home for the holidays.” Ironically when I’m around that area and people ask, I usually tell them a different part of the country where I lived in elementary school. I think that’s because I don’t really know the HS area that well, haven’t kept in touch with people there outside of immediate family, so I don’t feel like a local at all. Honestly the only place that feels like “home” to me is where I went to college. But that’s one of those cultural things, you can be “from” the place you went off to college. And now that I’m coming up on two decades post-graduation, that feeling of familiarity is fading, though the nostalgia and “homey-ness” remains. Why does everyone care so much about “where you’re from” anyway, sheesh :)

publicola1990 6y ago

While rest of the world wonders why Americans consider High School as the most important part of their lives.

cafard 6y ago
It can be a defining time of one's life without being the most important.
jhbadger 6y ago
It seems the Japanese at least share the obsession given how much anime and manga is set in high school. But it makes sense, really. It is both the end of childhood and the beginning of one's adult years, and therefore an important transitional event.

burlesona 6y ago

That’s an interesting observation. I have the same issue, moved as a kid and as an adult and don’t know what to say when people ask me where I’m from. I do usually say the place I spent 4 years of HS, but I think I only say that because my parents stopped moving at that point and still live there, so that’s where I “go home for the holidays.” Ironically when I’m around that area and people ask, I usually tell them a different part of the country where I lived in elementary school. I think that’s because I don’t really know the HS area that well, haven’t kept in touch with people there outside of immediate family, so I don’t feel like a local at all. Honestly the only place that feels like “home” to me is where I went to college. But that’s one of those cultural things, you can be “from” the place you went off to college. And now that I’m coming up on two decades post-graduation, that feeling of familiarity is fading, though the nostalgia and “homey-ness” remains. Why does everyone care so much about “where you’re from” anyway, sheesh :)