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I guess that we can all be happy that we don't have to be miserable like thejoe and mr. jonas. You guys need to get a life outside of your hatred for where you live. You only have to blame yourself... and your lack of marketability... for being in a place that you seem to hate. I, on the other hand just got back from Greensboro and as I approached Lynchburg, I was reminded how glad I am that I live here. I feel the same way whether I've been in Europe, Canada, out West, DC, NY.... Go figure.
Badger- you really need to get together with these guys and give them a little hope in life! By the way- count me in on that late April get-together!
I guess that we can all be happy that we don't have to be miserable like thejoe and mr. jonas. You guys need to get a life outside of your hatred for where you live. You only have to blame yourself... and your lack of marketability... for being in a place that you seem to hate. I, on the other hand just got back from Greensboro and as I approached Lynchburg, I was reminded how glad I am that I live here. I feel the same way whether I've been in Europe, Canada, out West, DC, NY.... Go figure.
Badger- you really need to get together with these guys and give them a little hope in life! By the way- count me in on that late April get-together!
Yeah, but I love to visit Greensboro -- it's not too far for a day trip and the shopping's great!!
I guess that we can all be happy that we don't have to be miserable like thejoe and mr. jonas. You guys need to get a life outside of your hatred for where you live. You only have to blame yourself... and your lack of marketability... for being in a place that you seem to hate. I, on the other hand just got back from Greensboro and as I approached Lynchburg, I was reminded how glad I am that I live here. I feel the same way whether I've been in Europe, Canada, out West, DC, NY.... Go figure.
Badger- you really need to get together with these guys and give them a little hope in life! By the way- count me in on that late April get-together!
Affirmative--looking forward to it. I too get a good feeling when the plane approaches Lynchburg and I can see the town with the Blue Ridge in the background. Works for me. I'll post some further plans as the time gets closer. I'm thinking meeting up at a place that is not too quiet/romantic. Dish maybe. Good place to mingle and share foods.
Well, Segorat3 if I ever said I hated Lynchburg, I am sorry.
Hate is a strong word.
Hate only breeds negativity and destruction (I am not talking property damage, but the inside of a person or his/her family). Lynchburg REALLY isn't my cup of tea.
How my marketability ties into me being stuck in Lynchburg I fail to understand.
Please explain.
I blamed myself for many years for having to work several part time jobs to put food on the table. I did not go to high school & college in three different countries to do that.
Now a college degree doesn’t (and shouldn’t) automatically guarantee you a successful career but give a you a good foundation. What you do with that foundation is up to you.
But also, you cannot train to be an ice-hockey player and ten being told you have to play Football, right?? (I hope my allegory isn’t too silly). You will probably end up being water boy. Now, you might have a creative coach who realized that the hockey player probably should not be put in a game BUT he might be able to help out with administrative things or maybe assist the Physiotherapist or MAYBE the Defensive Coordinator. Chances are slim, but you never know.
Before we moved here I had a job as an Assistant Art Director/Graphics Designer. I worked in print and web. I worked in an environment I really liked. Creative people of various ages and most of them were nice. You never had to watch your moth as long as you were polite. I liked having the access to arts and entertainment and the fact that I knew plenty of folks who would tag along to see a band, art exhibition, explore a new restaurant. I like having streets to walk along and watch people, many of whom I would never see again. I liked the chance to go for a beer wish friends, colleagues or ex colleagues after work. (Getting plastered and then crawl home is not my thing)
Enter Lynchburg 2002.
I arrive in May and in October I have a job. Part-time no benefits making a whopping $.500 a month at a group home for senior citizens with intellectual & mental disabilities. This is after applying to over 50 jobs all ignoring me or saying I was over qualified. I am glad SOMEONE did not think I was over qualified changing adult diapers!!! I rounded up some other part time jobs such as cleaning up and rearranging the files for a small law firm and helping a photographer with some basic computer and Photoshop things.
In 2006 I manage to land a full time job WITH benefits.
The job is acceptable. My boss is very nice and trustworthy (a quality that I have not come across too often here). My colleagues are OK, I guess. Most of them are old enough to be my mother.
No easily accessible concerts, no one to go for a drink or coffee with (most people my age here don’t do that apparently), no one to discuss movies as most folks here are not interested in film beyond just watching it (Does Riddley Scott REALLY fancy UK actor Mark Strong these days??, Can Anton Corbijn really pull off a spy thriller after 30 years of music related films and video, ), no one has any deeper interest in music (I just FINALY understood the band “Yeah Yeah Yeahs” and feel like discussing that, or that I really do not understand what is so fantastic about “The XX”) if I try to drag any of my colleagues out for lunch to a new place or Thai food, they get kind of grumpy because as they say they prefer proper American food, Hamburgers ham subs, KFC etc, etc. Maybe someone to just talk about Ian Rankin’s latest book. (Is his new police investigator as interesting as his previous character, Inspector Rebus?). My sport of choice is Soccer, and I do not expect people here to like it, or talk about it. If we had a big sports team here I might be able to get into it. At least I would try.
I have kids and a wife who works full time so I have many obligations, but it would be nice to have the opportunity or just KNOW you have that opportunity to do things that brightens up your average work week.
My friends back home can do all these things. They get ski trips with their job, or in the case of my brother a trip to the Cannes Film Festival due to his work, hear a presentation from a guy who sailed around the globe by himself, work related travels to Lisbon, Rio and Prague.
I wish I could join my friends in these things. I know that too many people here in central Virginia, wanting these things makes me snobby and elitist. Far from a normal person.
The people I work with and socialize with are OK and fairly nice but this is Lynchburg and you have to watch your mouth so you don’t appear snotty or liberal.
A few examples:
A.)There was an assassination attempt on the then French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac on 14 July 2002. I mentioned this to a neighbor, just to make conversation. “I wish they would have shot that F*** basted, and then went on to a rant about liberals”. I pointed out that Chirac represented RPR, a right wing party whose internal policies included lower tax rates, the removal of price controls, strong punishment for crime and terrorism, and business privatization, but he is a French right winger and that differs from an American right winger in the same way an Australian or an Israeli right winger differs.
This person completely went off the wall with bunch of gibberish.
Not fun. I should just be quiet.
B.) We were at a pick nick. Time for ice cream. Someone asks my son want kind of ice cream he wants.
Banana he says.
- We are all simple country folks son. We don’t eat that kind of fancy ice cream.
So here we have a bunch of adults laughing at a 7 year old. Laughing WITH kids is OK in my book, laughing AT kids. That is not ok. That is rude, impolite and a sign of a complete lack of manners.
C. ) The recent shootings in Appomattox. Someone at work asked what I thought. I mentioned that the guy use to be outside at night shooting guns so that the neighbors could not sleep; obviously he was not “all there”. The guy answers with a sneer “Yeah, of course the guns made him do it”. I say that no, that is not what I said, but when neighbors can’t sleep and they are scared to approach the guy about it, obviously something isn’t right?
He grins and says ironically “yeah, of course it is the guns, could not have been anything else, ha, ha..”..
Here I try to steer the conversation BACK to work, what we are here to do.
The examples are more and of course I cannot say they apply to EVERYONE in this area. I am not someone who gets off on confrontation. I also do not enjoy the feeling of having to watch what I say. People do not have to agree with me, I do not want to upset people.
I NEVER had this problem any were else.
One thing this forum HAS does is point to the more picturesque parts of Lynchburg. I also realize that many people live here and somehow (beyond my imagination) never see the rest of this town. Just look what happened when I posted some images I took while driving home one fall day in 2008. Heck, some posters seemed to think I was going out of my way to take “bad pictures”. I just took my normal way home, went off on some side streets and took some extra photos.
The “Lynchburg” I see every day is not picturesque, it is not beautiful. It looks rundown, torn, tired and I rather not look at it.
All I can say is come to dinner and you'll meet some people who kown who Chirac is (but many in the US have a bad feeling about France going back to de Gaulle who went out of his way to be difficult after we saved his country's butt.
Why would anyone from the west side ever need to go to the east side? As you point out--there's nothing much there. It's the poor side of town. Every US city has one. NYC has the Bronx and part of other boroughs. Chicago is half terrible dangerous slums and half wonderful. Paths rarely cross in the US. Paris put the slums in the suburbs but they still have them.
I perfectly understand that not everyone isn’t part of the “France appreciation club”, but PLEASE do not take it out on other people…. especially not me, I'm not even French!! I have visited the country twice very, very briefly.
I agree, every city had bad parts of town. (Maybe not Fallujah, the whole place seems pretty bad & dangerous….) Most of what I see is as you say, slum OR just plain red brick ranch style homes. Nothing wrong with that but it just looks really boring…
My availability depends on how my wife works and my kids schedules.
More on my half-full side of downtown Lynchburg's rebirth. Soon it might be increased to 3/4 full. PLus the recent Obama support of nuclear power could be a longer run boost to the local economy. I'd rather have Areva and B&W than the furniture and auto parts stuff they have in Roanoke. Now I'd trade LU for UVa or even VaTech or JMU in a New York second but they too have helped grow the local economy and the new engineering school could be a real boon to the area. As far as I know there are no religious impacts on engineering theory and practices.
I am considering moving to Lynchburg primarily for a change of scenery and also I go to Liberty University online and would like to go to the school. I was born and raised in New York and currentlly live in DFW Texas. I am tired of city living and want to raise my kids (3,13) in a more quiet peaceful atmoshpere with a beautiful environment. However I am bit skeptical because I have read alot of blogs stating Lynchburg has alot of prejudice people, and me being African American certainly don't want any problems. Can someone from Lynchburg or someone who lives there now help me? Also can you tell me what areas in Lynchburg should I be looking for residence and what elementary school and high school is good?. Thanks for your help
I really doubt that Lynchburg is any more or less racist then any other town in this area. I would recomend you to contact the African-American Students Association at Liberty University. I bet they can give you proper picture.
'I, on the other hand just got back from Greensboro and as I approached Lynchburg, I was reminded how glad I am that I live here. I feel the same way whether I've been in Europe, Canada, out West, DC, NY.... Go figure.'
Sounds like you've bitten by the Lynchburg Bug, it's a serious condition that leads to unlimited, unspecified conditions of delirium and unpredictable hallucinations of grandeur. Lynchburgsyndrome is it?
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