Pretentious

A million years ago, before EPCOT even existed, I lived in Florida.  (Close enough to Disney that it was a daily event, but I don't want you to be jealous).  I loved Florida.  I loved the ability to ride bikes through orange groves, daily rain storms where I could read in the Florida room, and tangelos.  I even loved the accent, and adopted it immediately.

Yes, I loved the accent.

Two years later, the family, without consulting me, decided that California would be a better place to live, so off we went, with Disney even further away, no EPCOT, and my proudly-earned Southern accent intact.

The first days of school were torture, as ten-year-old me was ridiculed for the accent.  To the point where people would ask me to say certain words, just so they could laugh at me.  I was so desperate for friends then that I would do almost anything for attention and maybe a real friend.

We lived in California for six years, and that accent was gone.  Dead and gone.  And then the best news of all - We're Moving To Alabama! 

Imagine what goth, dangerous, sixteen-year-old me thought of that plan.  I couldn't find Alabama on a map back then.

So we moved, and I adjusted, and I learned new turns of phrase and new meanings for words:
Pictures "made"
Hair "rolled"
"Carry you" to the store
"Bless your heart"

But I took pride in not getting the accent, and being questioned about my lineage because of it.  Until I bought in, and I now have a mild accent.  The problem is that lately, all I've been hearing is that screeching abortion of a redneck Southern accent, and it burns my baby sensibilities.  The other problem is that I have a tendency to adopt the accent of the person closest to me.  (Imagine how my British ex-fiance loved that.  He thought I was mocking him.)

So please, please don't let me adopt this terrifying tone.  I like the little one I have/had.  I don't want it to get worse.