I was born and mostly raised in the Soutwestern State of Oklahoma. Oklahoma is NOT a Midwestern State. Midwestern States are East of the Mississippi River and North of the Mason-Dixon line. My paternal grandfather, Lewis Doty was born in the Midwest and the state was Illinois. He moved to Indian Territory when they opened the Cherokee Outlet to homesteading in 1889.
Indian Territory became Oklahoma in 1907. It was never a Southern State.
I was born in the rural community of Tiawah and it was originally in the Cooweescoowee District of the Western Cherokee Nation, a part of Indian Territory. My Cherokee ancestors settled in and around Tiawah which is now in Rogers County, NE of Tulsa.
I have taught school in Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas.
I have been in 7 of the other states in the listed poll.
I moved back to Tulsa, Oklahoma in January 1992 from N. Hollywood which is in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, CA.