Do you identify from a certain region?

Do you place any particular pride or value from being born in a particular area or state? Why or why not?

 

I always say I'm from LA, even though I actually spent a largish chunk of my childhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota. But I hated living there: I felt penned in, and far from anything interesting. I loved LA my whole life, and always felt most at home there. And I fit into the culture of LA way better than I ever have in the Midwest.

Sometimes I'll say I'm from California, because I did also spend a largish chunk of time living in Santa Cruz, and Northern California also suited me pretty well. Though still not as well as LA. I still miss it.

 

I'm an Alaskan.
Even when I lived in NJ, it's what I was which is probably why I didn't fit in very well.

We're louder, more opinionated, stubborn, and and don't fit in the standard boxes.
I'm used to mountains out my front door, seeing moose walk down the road, snow that starts in October and doesn't end till April, and temperatures that range from 85F in the summer to -40F in the winter.
The politics are wide open (unlike NJ) but if you're a liberal you're probably going to lose.

It's not for everyone and you have to be a little crazy to live here it's me.

 

I am an Oregonian born and raised, and still identify as one. I lived in Florida for a few years while in the military and have been in the Inland Northwest for over 10 years, but will quickly say I am not from Idaho or Washington if the subject comes up.

 

Pretty much this.

While I really like Toronto and Canada, I don't like using words like love and pride to describe myself in relation to these places. I think emotional identification with a place can lead to bad places.

 

It's tough. I'm English, born in a time of peace. In fact, because of the spacing of generations, none of my direct family were obliged to take part in a war since at least the late 1800s.

I was born in a prosperous part of a prosperous country, in a prosperous time, to a well off and well educated family.

I am always aware that I am part of a very small slice of humanity that has a pretty good deal. Hell, I'm even the gender and ethnicity that gets the most help too.

I'm not a "my country, right or wrong" nationalist, but I am acutely aware that I have been dealt a bloody good hand.

 

I was born in the Far East and raised in the Middle East. I then spent a long time in the UK, which is where I still live. I've traveled a fair bit, spending good lengths of time in a wide variety of countries (parts of Africa, Scandinavia, Europe and North America mostly) either for work or pleasure.

I tended to think of myself as "human" rather than identifying with any country or area.

Then I spent a few months in Oklahoma in the winter.

I felt completely out of my culture and it took a while to feel settled at all. It was then that I realised that, culturally, I am European. I felt more at home in Rome (for example) where I didn't speak the language than I felt in OKC, where I did - kinda. The people there saw me as "other" too - and that actually became a lot of fun.

But it wasn't "home".

So, I guess I do identify with a part of the world, culturally at least. I'm European.

I feel more at home in parts of the States that are closer to my culture (larger cities, New England, Northern Cali, even Virginia) - but I'm European. Definitely. I need to be able to walk around and mix with people - all sorts of people (not just "my" type). In OKC, I couldn't walk anywhere. I had to drive to the restaurant next door to my hotel.

It's not about pride. It's about cultural familiarity - at least, for me it is.

 

I still don't feel at "home" in this part of the country. If I had the means and different situation I would rather move back to the East Coast or either the Salem/Portland area or Oregon Coast. I am just fine with the beaches being cold and wet 364.5 days out of any given year.

 

Do you feel the same indifference to the USA as a whole?

 

Texas has a very colorful history, which I guess makes being from Texas OK.

I identify more with growing up in the fourth largest city in the US and the cultural diversity that comes with it more than I do being a Texan. The changes here in Houston over the past four decades have been amazing, at least to me.

 

I'm a transplanted Chicagoan living in Colorado.

I like Chicago just fine and follow the Bears, White Sox, and Blackhawks. My political views reflect Chicago liberal, as opposed to Boulder liberal. It's just who I am.

That said, I live in the mountains by choice.

 

I am from Ohio. I am a Midwestener.

I will always lay claim to being a Midwesterner over being a PacNorthwesterner. It's pretty in the Willamette Valley 3 months out of the year, but when the lack of sunlight lands you in the hospital and in an extended care institution for 4 months, you learn to not really care for it. If I lived on the Eastern side of the state where you actually see the sun in the winter, I may be singing a different tune. I like being close to mountains, the coast and dessert, but I don't really live super close to those things where it is a daily occurrence to see them.

People are uppity about their beer here too.

I'm stuck here though since it's where my child's only living grandparents are.