I don’t want to even think about a person’s country of origin if I can possibly avoid it. It seems to me that people who have to know where everyone is from have no confidence in themselves. But the harder I try not to think about it, the more I find myself wondering who comes from which country. There are so many pasts: one that starts out, “I come from X.” Or in the country where a person went to elementary school. Or in a colony. There must be something wrong with me, asking for a name to learn about the past, when it should be the beginning of a new friendship, heading into the future.
