The Point of No Return

In the television show prior to Anthony Bourdain's 100th episode of 'No Reservations,' his homage to food and travel, he said this -

"We all grow up somewhere. It isn't so much the place we were born as the place we come of age. The place where our strengths and weaknesses are first exposed, our interests and prejudices get discovered and developed...."

For him that place was New Jersey. While I don't have any particular affection for NJ, his comment resonated powerfully with me. There is a city that I have lived in, that somehow unbeknownst to me at the time, seeped under my skin and took hold and I was never quite the same afterward. I had always chalked it up to the people I had met, the special experiences I have had, but now I realize it was something more profound. This was the city where I came of age. For most people I assume this process occurs as they transition from their teen years into adulthood. But for me, it happened in my early thirties because that is when I lived in New York City.

I so often get asked, "Sooo...where are you from? No, where are you really from...?" (I guess they didn't like my answer). But now I am thinking the more pertinent and insightful question might be "where did you come of age?"

So, where did you?

Salvador Dali's Baby Map of the World