My least favourite question: where are you from?

Americans move on average 12 times during their lives. Photograph: Alamy One of the questions I dread most is a seemingly innocent one: where are you from?I begin my response with an awkward pause as I try to assess what the person asking me this query really wants. Where I was born? Where I live now? Where I spent the most years of my life? Where I consider home? Do he or she want my full "location history" or just a polite one-line response?It might sound like a silly dilemma…