So, Where is home?

I'm not from here

James McMurtry

I'm not from here 

I just live here 

Grew up somewhere far away 

Come here thinking I'd never stay long 

I'd be going back soon someday 

It's been a few years 

Since I got here 

Seen 'em come and I've seen 'em go 

Crowds assemble, they hang out awhile 

Then they melt away like an early snow 

Onto some bright future somewhere 

Down the road to points unknown 

Sending postcards when they get there 

Wherever it is they think they're goin' 

I'm not from here 

I just live here 

Can't see that it matters much 

I read the papers and I watch the nightly news 

Who's to say I'm out of touch 

Nobody's from here 

Most of us just live here 

Locals long since moved away 

Sold the played-out farms for parking lots 

Went off looking for a better way 

Onto some bright future somewhere 

Better times on down the road 

Wonder if they ever got there 

Wherever it was they thought they'd go 

Hit my home town 

A couple years back 

Hard to say just how it felt 

But it looked like so many towns I might've been through 

On my way to somewhere else 

I'm not from here 

But people tell me 

It's not like it used to be 

They say I should have been here 

Back about ten years 

Before it got ruined by folks like me 

We can't help it 

We just keep moving 

It's been that way since long ago 

Since the stone age, chasing the great herds 

We mostly go where we have to go 

Onto some bright future somewhere 

Down the road to points unknown 

Sending post cards when we get there 

Wherever it is we think we'll go

I think this song represent at some parts what TCK's feel about. I choose it because if the main idea if the song, the feeling of not belonging anywhere, feeling rootless. This music makes me feel upset because it refers to a man who has got no home. When I hear the lyrics of this song I immediately think in TCK's, because they are constantly moving from one country to another, without an specific home. I relate this song to the feelings that I think a Third World Kid may have each time they are asked from where they are from. The main idea can be found when the songs makes a repetition in "I'm not from here/I just live here", to clarify the idea. "Grew up somewhere far away/Come here thinking I'd never stay long " leaves a message very similar to TCK's lifes. I think that the song's main issue is feeling rootless. One of TCK's challenges is feeling rootless and belonging anywhere. The main reason of this feeling is being constantly travelling from one country to another