Where Are You From?

It's such a loaded question, and on the days when I'm exhausted my answer is sarcastic. 

"Mars." I say, under my breath. It's a rather fitting answer considering how much the question can make me feel like an alien in my own skin. 

The people who understand my humour laugh whereas others do a double take. "No, I mean where are you from originally?" 

I'm so used to it now that I have the script down pat and can spit it out in less than three minutes.

"I was born in the UK, when I was ten my family and I moved to the US, we lived on the west coast and on the east coast and I've been back in the UK, in Manchester, for six months so far. I come from a mixed race family, my genetic background is half Indian, half African and British. 

No, I've never been to Africa but, yes, I do really want to go. I'm almost twenty-nine and and no I don't have any children nor do I want them." 

"I believe in all religions and respect them all but don't personally practice any particular one, mainly due to the fact that they all fight over which one is the best and how there can only be one, which is why I don't have a religious identity. I believe in Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Allah, maths, science, chemistry, alchemy,  love, music, magic and unicorns. I strongly believe in the power of positive thinking the same way I understand the power of words. I pray but not in the way most people assume."

Interacting with strangers can be a wild experience when you've been out of touch with them for so long (in my case more than a decade). I think my answers cover the basics of a polite introduction. But it's far more complicated then that. I always get asked how different the two countries and it's difficult to narrow it down to a simple answer.

They both idolise each other, they both have a long way to go as far as becoming inclusive and progressive. Americans adore the British and as a child I "turned up" my Brit accent because they found it charming (while constantly being warned not to lose it). Yanks are also obsessed with the royal family (which I find rather hilarious considering that the US was formed in an effort to flee the monarchy). They are loud and tend to use it as a form of overcompensation, something that you don't find with stiff upper lip Brits. We Brits grit our teeth and get the job done and we don't brag. Satire and cynicism are our comedic fortes which tend to go straight over a Yanks head. U.S. "humour" is usually centred around toilet and bathroom activities or is self-deprecating. Many of the U.S's language is commonly used here due to the import of it's media and TV/ Netflix series. The UK has it's own brand of "reality tv" (accompanied by it's wide range of adoring fans) which is just as loud and superficial as anything produced by it's transatlantic cousin, but is usually sarcastically narrated.

Although it seems like I'm knocking the Yanks, I'm really not. I noticed that my accent changes slightly with certain words. I'm just finding it a bit of a culture shock at times. 

At the core of me I'm British, and at times very proud to be so, but I also have a very deep love and attachment to the US, mainly due to the fact that I called it home for so many years. With certain conversations it sometimes it feels as if I'm being asked to choose sides and I refuse to. While I was there I'd seen the US get ripped apart by racism and politics, I'd seen people come together because of it. It's a beautiful, geographically diverse country. Now that I'm across the pond again I'm seeing it from both sides, sometimes it's brutal and ugly and other times it's breathtakingly wonderful.