Where are you from? Where are you from? Where are you from? Where are you from?
Here or there, it is the same question said in different ways, such as where is this beautiful accent from? Where were you born? Where do you come from? I am bored and tired, but mostly deeply bored.
I think i am going to start thinking that this line of questions is pure flirting and nothing else with no intention of saying you are not from here. If i move around thinking that the person with the question is trying to flirt with me, then the possibilities are endless. Lots and lots of people are flirting with me, taxi drivers, airport officers, young shop sellers, coffee baristas, older women, phone operators, supermarket cashiers, bank tellers, beggars, homeless people, bar tenders, flight attendants, waiters, waitresses, so many from all races and colors and genders.
Sometimes i ask them to guess, and this is what i mostly get:
- Russian
- Armenian
- Colombian
- French
- Irish
- Spanish
- Greek
- Mexican
On the other side, I am told that i look like an AJNABIEH اجنبية which translates to alien; extraneous; extrinsic; foreign; foreigner; outsider; strange; stranger.
Basically, i am an official alien on one side with an official document/card which states that i am an alien by the government of that side. And on the other side, i am chosen by the people to be an alien.
I just need to relax into it and embrace it and walk confidently with it and stop trying to resist it. It is cool to be an alien, i am not from here or from there, i am from an unknown place, i am myself, nothing else is like me.
My mother is my only concern, in how she needs to defend this alien she brought into this world, and walk around with it. She loves me, i know she does, she’s proud of me, i know she is. But, is she comfortable with it? This alien. I am not sure. In one of our outings she expressed her concern for my safety because of my alien look, so i asked her to imagine that i was a famous person, like a movie star and to imagine that people are staring at me because i was famous, they want to admire me and that they will not harm me. I am glad i am not a movie star or any famous being.
I advise all similar aliens to play this game.
There is no blame here in what kind of questions people want to ask, it’s their own curiosity and wondering. I can’t see what they see. It’s impossible for me to see what they see. Maybe if i see myself through their eyes, i will have the same question.
Sometimes, i pause and don’t know what to answer. I forget.
Maybe that is a blessing.
Side note: according to the results of a DNA test that my brother did, and which mine would be very similar, this is what we got:
37% Middle Eastern
29% Greek/Italy
28% Caucasus
5% Africa
1% European Jewish
