Tonight some people stopped to talk to me as they were leaving and I asked if they lived here. They said they just had a house they came down to every few weekends; said they’d been coming down for a long time.
I told them that I’ve lived here all my life and they said, “What!? You don’t even sound like you’re from here!”

I don’t think you guys can understand how happy and proud that made me. I didn’t even do it on purpose, but I’m really glad I lost that hayseed accent I had when I was little.