 People of color are always posed with this question of being asked where we are from. I'm born and raised in Los Angeles, California. I currently reside in Jersey City, New Jersey, and I'm originally from Boston, Massachusetts. I'm from Sacramento, California. I am a first-generation Asian-American. I was born in New York City and I grew up in New Jersey. The inspiration for the I Am From Here series came from brainstorming ideas for AAPI Month. I thought about the ongoing issues the AAPI community faces and the same messages that I shared every year and really thought about how we could do it differently. I had saved this TikTok creative tutorial because it was so dramatic. Who is this person? Why is there a city placed on top of his silhouette? And that's when I really thought, oh, maybe this is where he's from. And it was just something that kind of clicked inside my head about the perpetual stereotype that Asians have to go through of constantly explaining where they are from and how this idea could solve for that. I really wanted to be a part of this because it's important that we share this, not just for the AAPI community, but for every other diverse community out there, because if it's a problem or a challenge within our community, it's a challenge for many other communities. It felt like a really safe space to go into to tell my story and also show up alongside the other amazing members of the community. I thought it was really important to shed light on the topic and that everyday aggression that so many of us face. That question is such a powerful question. My own personal experience with the question, where are you from? Is this constant debate and question about my identity? It is the entry point into someone's identity, into someone's background, someone's culture. Growing up as a mixed-race kid, the idea of passing, passing for white, passing for Asian has always been tied to this notion of, are you enough? Are you enough to be Asian? Are you enough to be white? It feels as if the other person is undermining your identity, that the other person is questioning. No, like where are you really from? But where are you really from? Do you really believe that's where you're from? Is that really where you're from? And then I would tilt my head and say, I am from here. I was born and raised in Michigan until I moved to Boston when I was two years old and I am just as American as anyone else. What I hope people would take away from the, I am from here series, is when they interact with other people and they ask that forwarded question, that they understand what the impact is on the other person. It's a really important campaign for allies to be paying attention to because those of us who have been featured in the campaign and those of us from the community, we all understand what that experience is like. It's an opportunity for us to educate allies to understand what can be so hurtful about that question. The other thing I hope that people take away from the I am from here series is the vibrancy of our community, the fact that there are so many amazing cultures and ethnicities and stories. Like any heritage month and any month that's celebratory, it's not a check the box exercise. It's not the only time to support and lift up the community. It's an important time to listen and to acknowledge and to lift up the community but it's important to be doing that all year round and not just in the month of May. This is an issue that's very uncomfortable for everyone but the more of us that come together and stand up for what we believe in, the better things will turn out.