Personal Narrative: My Life In Southern California

I was born and raised in Southern California and lived in the same town up until I graduated high school. My ancestors are from England and Norway, but on my mother’s side, my great-grandmother was Native American. Both my parents grew up in Southern California and, generally, lived in the same area for most of their lives. Even though my mother was raised in Long Beach, she pronounces certain words strange, such as wash like worsh. Her grandmother came from Minnesota, and I believe that is how she came to speak with an almost accent. Hearing her speak it, I started to speak like her until my friends started to make fun of me. I think I stopped pronouncing words like my mom when I was in middle school. My parents also spoke a little bit of Spanish, so I know basic words like “Hello” and “Thank you.” I am not sure why they infused English with a hint of Spanish, but I think it was because we lived in a town with a large Hispanic population. My hometown was a little different from other Southern California cities because is very small and could be described as “country.” We have horse trails instead of sidewalks and almost every person has …show more content…
For example, I once said that someone had “more money than sense,” and my friends had never heard that before. It seemed so strange to me because I have heard that saying all my life. I also have Southern California slang and sayings like “dude” and “butthurt.” I have a difficult time distinguishing between a highway and freeway because in California, we mainly have freeways. It took some time getting use to the Texas slang, such as “skeeters,” “howdy,” and “fixin’ to.” The most shocking thing I experienced when I came to Texas was everyone saying “y’all.” In California, I only heard it when people were either trying to be funny or “country.” After a couple years, I do not really hear the distinction anymore, but I have yet to say