Identity and home

For the past few months I have been thinking about a person's identity, or more like 'what defines a person' or 'where is each person from?' and why is that important to people, why can't each person be their own selves, why can't that be enough?

I'm Emarati and I live in United Arab Emirates, some people would ask where the problem is then? Isn't it enough that I know that? I think it is enough but many people don't, they need to know which Emarate I'm from, if you don't give a direct answer to that then there got to be some missing pieces in the puzzle they are trying to put together.

My question is where I'm from? Is it the place where my parents grew up in and then left? Or where I was born? Or where my passport says I'm from? Or where I spent most of my childhood in but never really 'fit in' or where I spend my weekends?

I have never had a problem with that; I don't even think of it as a problem because to me it isn't important where I'm from. I'm just trying to understand and find answers to why is it so important to people here.

Growing up I was not aware of how important it is to people here to put themselves in groups of people, until I came to the point where I had to be around local people who are not family. I was shocked when they asked me 'what tribe I'm from?' and 'who is my tribe's Sheikh?' and such questions. The looks I get when I tell them that I don't know what they are talking about, my family is my family and my grandfather is my oldest figure, isn't that enough? People always ask for more. After sometime I got tired from explaining my history to every person who asks me where I'm from and started giving them the first answer that comes to my mind.

When I talk to my family about it, they tell me what I already know that it's not important. I was told that some people are just 'different' and that they care more about materialistic things. I was told to work hard and try to make something of myself because the work you do and the person you make of yourself is what's important; each person is their own free person, they can make whatever they want from what they have and were given.

Some might wonder and ask 'shouldn't I be proud of my family?' I'm so proud of them, I'm always remind of how great and special they are but I'm not proud of them because of the name they carry or the money they have; these are things that can be lost or taken. I'm proud of who they made themselves to and of all the work they did trying to make this world a better place; these are things that will be printed in history even if the history of simple things, it's a job done that can't be deleted even if some people chose to ignore it.

When I think of my situation, I think of other people who are lost between countries and remind myself that it's not important where the person is from, what's important is what each person think and make of himself.