Where I’m From

I recently ran across the poem, Where I'm From by Georgia Ella Lyon, and I used it as inspiration to create my own story of  Where I'm From. It reminds of how each of us has a narrative to tell, and that it is our responsibility to share our stories so that we learn from each other and grow into the people we were meant to me. This is Where I'm from

I am from Home Juice delivered to my door,

Ethnic baked goods from a bus trip across town

Meals made from scratch; nothing out of a box at my house

I am from sit-down Sunday and holiday dinners

Pepper steak and rice in Chinatown

My mother, my sister, my niece and me

I am from karate lessons in the basement,

Home-made heated tents when the furnace went out,

Swing sets on a summer day

Dance parties in the front room

I am from being chased through the house – laughing and squealing,

Hide-and-go seek, Simon Says;

I am from a  time that allowed me to enjoy being a child

I am from “See you later alligator, after while crocodile;” “Watch out there now;”

And “If it had’ve been a snake it would have bit you” –

When I couldn’t find something in front of my face

I am from singing in music workshop,

The red swivel seats of an integrated Woolworths

And neighbors who know my name

I am from the bottom of the slave ship

Washed up on the shore of North America

Two cultures merged to make me

I am from Africa by way of Nigeria and Sierra Leona

From the intersection of Georgia and Mississippi

From the west and the south side of Chicago

I am from the Ancestors

On whose shoulders I stand

I am from the breath of God

I am from this place we call

Life

Where are you from? I would love to hear your story.