I grew up in North Carolina and I still live there to this day, but you wouldn't know it based off the way I speak.
Like most people, I took part in dozens of introductions during my freshman year of college. You know the kind: "Alright, let's go around and say your name, major, where you're from, and a fun fact!." If you're like me, you just groaned at the thought of these. Every time I said I was from NC, without fail, there was always someone who was surprised by my existence in Central New York. People would say comments like, "It's so far away!", or the belittling "But it's so cold here!", that one teacher who just said "Oh, barbecue" and nodded, and of course the one I got the most, "You don't have an accent I would've never guessed!"
The main reason for a lack of accent is because, although I was born and raised in the south, my parents are from Queens. No honeyed southern drawls from me. The only time I have a relatively pronounced accent is when I'm so tired that I've become a new, woozy form of myself and my eyelids are carrying enough bags to be taking a month-long vacation.
The other reason I probably don't have an accent is that I refused to say one word my entire life. A word that outside of the Southern United States, you really don't hear. A certain contraction that's been the butt of jokes, and even the base of a (very funny) meme: the dreaded "y'all." Younger me thought that by saying it would almost be like an admission that I'm from the south even though my family wasn't. It made my own sister, who was born in NY, a traitor for coming back home from college saying it. The word meant I could never leave the state because it was somehow illegal to say it once you cross the Mason-Dixon Line. I would be an outcast for combining these two small words.
Obviously, that isn't even remotely true (I've heard people from the North East use "y'all" more than I have myself). But to a stubborn middle then high schooler who slowly but surely wanted nothing to do with the south, there was no way I would've been caught dead saying it.
That is until the end of my first semester at CUSE when my body was so mentally exhausted that I spoke with a subtle southern accent for a week and gave into my body's natural urge to just say "y'all." So now from time to time I'll say it or type it in a text because I know that I'm not going to be burned at the stake for combining a few words. I opened a southern gate that finals week but I'm okay with it because I know that just because I was born in North Carolina, it doesn't mean I'm stuck there forever. So, if you're like me and you sometimes feel self-conscious regarding your southern word choices, my advice is to just roll with it. You'll feel better after you say it.
