Day 17-Singapore

Whenever I’m asked where I’m from I hesitate, because in my case it isn’t exactly an easy question. I’m definitely American, and I’m also very definitely from Northern California. My mom family was from Northern California, and very strongly rooted in the community, and my dad has essentially adopted California has a home after growing up in Wisconsin (he has lived much longer in California).
In my case, I was born here, which means I should feel at home, and most of my life has been spent in California. I do think of California as home, but I also have another home.
I grew up in Indonesia, and spent a majority of my childhood living in the middle of the jungle. I was four years old when we arrived in Sumatra (my dad was an engineer for an oil company) and I started school in Indonesia. I was still there when I graduated from High School- I think I may be the only kid who started Kindergarten and graduated in my company camp, and also graduated from High school (my best friend missed out by one year, and spent more time there).
This brings me to Singapore. I consider your hometown as being the place where you went to high school. You go through so much maturing in high school, and high school is really where you come into your own being. For me that happened in Singapore, and as long as I live Singapore will always be home.
It was strange last year when I came back. It was the first time in 18 years that I had been back to Singapore (it was more than half of my life, but still significant). The ironic part is that Singapore had changed significantly in those 20 odd years, and I should not have recognized it as home. My former high school campus was now a small series of condos (that was hard to see), there were new homes built in place of my old home, the old shops we used to visit were gone. Virtually everything I remember had changed, and yet I felt like I was home. The whole time I was visiting Singapore wasn’t like seeing a foreign country, I was coming back home and I felt comfortable. Sure I felt sad the Metro (a shop) I remember had now changed, and the old mall was rebuilt. I couldn’t figure out where I was a few blocks from home, but it was home. It had changed, but it was still my home.