The South and Me

I have been born and raised in the same house in the South for my entire life. I am from Raleigh, which is a big city and is not as southern as rural towns. My mom's whole side of the family lives in North Carolina, and have been living in the South for as long as they can remember. My dad, on the other hand, is from Pennsylvania, but my brother, my sister, and I were all brought up very southern from my mom's influence. My grandparents on my mom's side live in a very small town called Ramseur, where there they live on a road with just a few houses, a lot of pastures, some chicken houses, and a couple other relatives. My grandpa also owns cows. With this influence growing up, we easily picked up on the southern lifestyle and found our southern accents. Our family also owns a lake house on a lake in the middle of nowhere called Badin Lake. It is technically my grandparents, so my mom went there when she was younger and now our whole family goes there very often. The surrounding towns include Denton, Richfield, Salisbury, and Albemarle, which are all very small towns with a strong sense of southern heritage. By going so often, we have numerous friends from this area and have really experienced small town life at our home away from home. While I do not have a strong accent like my mom has, I still believe that I am very southern from the way I was raised and influences that surround me.