I Swear
I spoke to a friend of mine on the phone last night, a guy I got to know because he used to work here.
K. asked me at one point what my life-long ambitions were. I said I wanted to work in a museum/library/archive and I didn't want to move too far away from here. He said I shouldn't hold myself back, because there are other parts of the country so much more beautiful than this, and someone with my accent could be a big success in another part of the country. I asked him what he meant. He said people outside the South are attracted to people with North Carolina accents (but then he said they couldn't differentiate between accents within the South). He said we're like Australians; people are drawn to them, and they can be successful business people.
I swear - the things that boy comes up with.