Woher?

I'll save you the trouble of switching tabs and going to Google translate (if you were going to do that anyway, maybe you know German, maybe you don't care). "Woher?" means "from where?". I was born in Germany, though on an American military base thus rendering me an American citizen. This begins to explain not only my decision to study the language, but also the urge I felt to lead with this factoid about myself and to tell an obnoxious amount of stories that all begin with "while I was in Germany...".

That all being said and as much as I love saying it, I only spent the first nine months of my life in Germany. Shortly thereafter my family moved back to the states, eventually settling down in southeast Michigan when I was about 5. While it is interesting and exciting to say that I hail from somewhere so unfamiliar to many, the more honest answer is one that my readers are likely far more familiar with. I am from the suburbs. I am from a family that inhabits the ever diminishing zone we collectively refer to as the middle class. I am from a good childhood and a good public school. I am from privilege, though not from excess. It is only due to this origin of plenty, with occasional glimpses into the lives of those on either side of the social strata of me that I was able to decide where my heart lies with comparative ease. Where my heart lies is back in the Bavarian City of Würzburg in the shadow of the Marienburg fortress, and in the Hamburg Christmas markets with it's myriad of snow covered stalls. As my heart rests there, so too do these places compel me to return. Such compulsion drives me through all that I do. Where my work comes from and therefore where I come from is the desire to return. Return not only to familiar places but also to a familiar feeling, a feeling of home and of wonder. 

Woher kommt ihr?