Where I'm from ...

People always ask me “where are you from?” Often I get that before or immediately after “hello”. It’s not an easy question to answer. Not when you were born in Alaska then moved to Arizona at 6 years old, which is what I blame my hot and cold personality on. Yeah, I just did that.

While moving from Alaska to Arizona I spent my kindergarten year in Riverside. Those are some of my earliest memories of the Platte Valley. A place of serenity that existed in the midst of a pretty tumultuous year for a young kid born in the last frontier of Alaska who then moved to the white-hot desert...