Where Are You From? Royal Oak or Detroit?

When you travel far away from Royal Oak and someone asks you where you are from, what is your answer?

Do you say Royal Oak? Or are you from Michigan? Are you from Detroit?

In his first blog for the new HuffPost Detroit, writer Toby Barlow says most of us in the suburbs identify our place in the world as being from Detroit — without having any idea of what Detroit is really like. It's time we all stop running away from Detroit, Barlow writes in "'Detroit,' Meet Detroit."

"If you're from Detroit, you've got to know it and be a part of it, embracing all of its opportunities, its troubles and its beauty," Barlow writes. "It is not just some idealistic dream, it's an economic necessity: The reason this is so fundamentally important is because – get this – it's the straightest path to getting your property values back. It's that simple. You may be from Berkley or Dearborn Heights or Beverly Hills or even Ypsilanti – it doesn't really matter how far out you go – but if you're in Southeast Michigan, you're from Detroit. It's your brand. So deal with it."

So, where do we live? In Royal Oak? In southeast Michigan? In Detroit?