Check this out:
My mom grew up in Kentucky her whole life, and had a strong accent. But she went to school up in Michigan. During her speech class that she had to take, her teacher told her and a few other students that they would fail the class if they didn't lose their accent and speak correctly!!!
Well, she lost it!! I find that sad.
Personally, I've always wanted a southern accent [ok technically I wanted to be a southern belle. haha] But being from Jersey, I htink that's out of the question. But the funny thing is... I don't have a Jersey accent either. My parents weren't from jersey so it's not like I picked an accent up from them either... so now i'm accent-less.
However, friends from home claim i've picked up a southern twang by going to school in sc.