I'm currently located in West Virginia. It's pretty rural for the most part and I've lived here most of my life. I currently live in one of the bigger cities and I'm at one of the top 5 party colleges in the United States. I'm trying to decide where I'm going to move after I graduate, because I feel like the people, environment, and weather here are making me a lot less happy than I could be. I'm just wondering if anyone has some tips based on these. SIZE - I love the feel of bigger cities, but I hate traffic and overpopulation to the point that if it isn't possible to avoid, I don't want to live in a bigger area. I require nature. Communities that incorporate it are important to me. Vancouver seems to do this and it would be ideal but I'd like to stay within the US. PEOPLE - This is less important to me, as I feel I could find one or two people at least to relate to anywhere, but I'm essentially atheist, so having Christianity pushed on me would not be cool. I'm also really into music, art, and creative expression so that would be a nice touch. WEATHER - This is the most important thing to me. I don't even know if it exists but I want to live somewhere I don't have to deal with long, freezing winters. I hate the cold. Hot summers are ok, but I prefer a mild climate, like 75 degrees is ideal. Also, I love rain. These are basically the most important things to me. I'd say crime and all that but I feel that the specifications above have generally excluded places where it's hard to avoid. Thanks!
I've always kind of felt the West would suit me more. Never been out there though because it's just a really far trip to make and I haven't done it. I need to.
Dude, check out Albuquerque. It matches most of the shit you specified. It has a big city feel with a small downtown are but it's not that big, only around 700,000 people in the city so I always see someone I know when I'm out. You have all the nature you could want in the Sandia mountains like 10 miles east. I'm never getting preached at by people or anything so I'd say that's no problem. Religion isn't really a problem among the younger crowd too, it's mostly old assholes that you have to worry about. Oh shit, I just saw you said you love rain. Well it's the desert so not much rain here man. It's dry heat and in the summer it usually peaks at around 90-100 but gets really really nice at night. It doesn't get unreasonably cold either.
I appreciate the replies. This has been a big dilemma for me for a while. Looks like I'm moving west. Does anyone know of any places like this closer to where I'm at?
I got a flight out to Denver for like 175 both ways. Definitely a chillin spot with some genuine people. Broncos suck though, better than WVU football though!
Haha, damn that's pretty cheap. It doesn't really help that I've never flown and it's an obstacle in my life. I'm not scared, but I'm not enthusiastic. Also, hate on WVU all you want, I don't pay attention to it anyway haha.
Well, Seattle would be a good choice, but it's usually rainy in the summers. Winters arent exactly that long. but they are cold. I would recommend something like san Francisco, or san diego.
Check into Charlotte, North Carolina. It's a relatively big city, but it's smaller. Are you trying to go to grad school? or just looking for a job? I will probably end up there, plus you wouldn't be to far away from home!
Nice! I'm going to go to grad school, but I'm a year away from my b.s. being done, and then it's just a 1 year MBA. It's so ridiculously cheap at WVU for me, I'm just going to do that here. I'm definitely concerned with not being too far from my parents, so I'll definitely look into charlotte.
Awesome! Charlotte also has UNC-Charlotte there which is a pretty nice school, I would have gone there if it not have been for app. NC-State (which is in Raleigh) is a great school. I didn't get in there, but we don't talk about that. haha
I might end up going to grad school in Asheville! It's such a cool place, but trust me, I live in Boone right now, and I'm snowed in hating my life. It's wonderful in the summer though! I don't think Asheville gets as much snow as we do, but it is definitely cold. Probably not colder than WV though.
Do you know anything about SC? It has always seemed to me like NC is a little warmer than here but not that much, and then you get to SC and it's really hot. I might be wrong but this is just what I've heard. I REALLY hate the cold and snow. Especially snow.
When I was 10, our family was coming back from Disney World and we passed through West Virginia. Our car broke down in the hills, and we had to get help at a small garage. It was some Deliverance shit. The guy who owned it was called 'Pappy' and I dunno he had two sons... anyways they lost the part to our car and had to drive miles to get another one so we were stranded there for about five hours. There was also a tornado watch so the weather was suited to the atmosphere. But uh, West Virginia had some gorgeous scenery that's for sure. ... Canada isn't too bad, y'know...
Appalachian and Asheville are in the mountains so its super cold, but the rest of NC is definitely warmer...I'm from where Wake Forest is, and it's a good 25 degrees warmer there. South Carolina is a lot hotter. I went to Myrtle this summer and the humidity was terrible! but I imagine somewhere away from the coast is more bearable! Come to Asheville and we can be classmates!
LOL that is hilarious. The stereotypes can be true, but it's generally in the southeastern and really rural parts of the state from what i hear. I've honestly never experienced much like that. I'm in the very north of the state at WVU. I'll have to look around the rest of NC then. I really like the mild temps. I absolutely hate super cold and I hate super hot. I'm pretty picky, but up here this week it's been like 10 degrees/snowing and sometimes the wind chill is in the negatives. It's not cool.