Mixing Pot

     I have an odd mixture of influences that somehow combine to make up a vocabulary and sound that helps me communicate with others. I have lived in King William County, a rural area about an hour northeast of Richmond, Virginia since I was four years old. My town is not very diverse; it is pretty much black and white. On the other hand I attended a college prep school in Richmond and received a better education than the schools in my area offer. I have also spent summers in Massachusetts since I was a little kid. From living in Virginia one almost automatically uses words like “y’all” but living where I live I use picked up words like “ain’t”, “jank”, “thang”, “loo” (look), “mai” (man), and “dat”. I would get odd looks from teachers when I used these words in school and have to consciously make an effort to drop these words from my vocabulary when trying to make a good impression. At work, where I live, I would be asked to “put it simpler” and not use such big words. In order to add to the confusion, I would sometimes respond in French, or if my boss started spitting out his mountain gibberish just to let him know that nobody could understand his mumbles. Every time I go to Massachusetts people poke fun at the way I talk. I say y’all and they say you guys. But going there has changed the way I talk, like any foreign region they have a different accent and use different words. Over the years I have picked up common words from there such as “Deeze”, “wicked”, and “mass”. For example: These doughnuts are wicked deeze, but there are mass people here, lets bail. I do not necessarily have pride in the way I talk. I change the way I speak to appear more respectable, but only when I deem necessary. I prefer to talk in my normal way, but I realize there are times when it is just not appropriate.