Even if you are from the same neighborhood as someone else, you might still be coming from different places. Where you are from is a complicated question and it elicits complicated, but interesting and thought-provoking responses. We’ve shared some of those responses below.

Loren Hsiao | Co-Founder 22 One Advisors & Certified Financial Planner

My parents immigrated from Taiwan to the United States in the late 70’s for my dad to pursue his graduate degree at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX, and that is where my life begins. After his graduate studies were completed, my parents moved to Plano, TX. My parents left everything they had to come to America for a better opportunity. They left family, friends, culture, food, and comfort when they came over. My parents were newlyweds, and the crazy thing is the immigration laws back then prevented my mom from coming over with my dad for the first year. So, my dad actually left his wife as well when he came over! Imagine the culture shock going from Taiwan to Lubbock, TX in the 70’s. When my mom finally did come over to join my dad, she got to experience the same shock and learning curve my dad had been dealing with for the past year. Read more>>

Britt Hamilton | Photographer & Painter

I’m from ALL OVER!! Lol I don’t really claim one place as home. My childhood wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t the worst either. My parents were divorce before I was born. They married very early in life and it didn’t help that my dad was in the military. Even though, I have siblings I mostly grew up as an the only child Art was my way escaping pain that I endured growing up. Not being settled in one place I learned early how to adapt and adjusted. The only thing that was consistent was being able to draw and journal. It was easy to carry around a sketched book / paper and an pencil everyday. I drew or painted how I felt at the time when I was younger that’s how I expressed myself. My dad didn’t know I could paint/draw until I was about 22/23 and my mother died before I even started to become public about my work. Read more>>

Adam Coffey | Therapist, Executive Coach & Speaker

I was born on a Naval base in Olongapo City, Philippines, but we lived in Howe, Texas throughout most of my childhood. Both of my parents worked outside the home, providing my sisters and I with our basic necessities. Not until I became an adult did I truly learn of their slight salaries and how modest our lifestyles were. My parents taught me the values of hard work, responsibility, and integrity, as they did their best to live their own paths. Accordingly, I began doing farm-related summer work for my maternal grandfather at the age of nine. Such work was hard and physically-demanding, with the hot North Texas summers and endless number of tasks making me appreciate my bed each night. As the years passed, I thought a lot about my higher education and career path, as I knew that I likely was not going to get a degree in agriculture and become a farmer. Read more>>

Ashley Roach | Photographer

I am from Texas and have lived here my whole life. My parents are both entrepreneurs and they’ve always modeled that lifestyle and career choice for me. I grew up thinking that having an entrepreneurial lifestyle was the norm and not the exception. So I’ve always wanted to be my own boss, set me own schedule and make my own rules! Read more>>

Janet Alonso | Portraits + Lifestyle Photographer / Marketing Guru

I am a Fort Worth Native, born and raised in the heart of Stop Six. The Eastside of Fort Worth will forever hold a soft spot in my heart. It’s crazy because when people hear about that side of town, they link it to violence, drugs and danger, but my experience was different growing up. I loved where I grew up, all of the neighborhood kids played together, went to the same schools growing up and just seemed happy. It was after high school that I really started taking notice in the different life paths everyone was following. Personally, I chose to attend my dream university, and the rest is history. Was it easy? Absolutely not, The real world doesn’t prepare you for college courses, exams and different upbringings. Read more>>

Scout Wilson | Painter & Muralist

I’m originally from Reading, Pennsylvania, it’s a small city outside of Philadelphia. This is a very poor city, and not really the best place to live, but anyone who lives there, does so in spite of the bad apples. Growing up my mom was a single mother and I saw my father every other weekend, I have three brothers and three sisters, so being the youngest I had to fight for everything. I always felt like I had something to prove, being the baby but also being from Reading, any surrounding city or town would sneer their noses away from us and call us the “ghetto”. I resented it, but rather than letting it consume me I let it fuel me, I wanted to be better, make my surroundings more beautiful, so I would paint, on everything. Read more>>

Seraphina Nova Glass | Novelist & Assistant Professor

I grew up in a very small, very religious community. We were at church all the time. We also went to the church school that had about fifty kids, K-12, in two rooms. We worked on our subjects quietly, alone at our desks all day. There was no traditional teacher-in-front-of-the-room or interaction with other students. If you had a question, you placed a green block on your desk, and the teacher (who was seated, silently, at her own desk all day) would come over and quietly help you with your question. We actually even scored our own tests and we didn’t cheat because God would know. We didn’t learn any history outside of Bible history. We were not allowed non-Christian friends, not that we did any activities outside the church. No dancing, movies, or secular music. Read more>>