Blacksburg culture question

[Disimpact22]

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I have a sensitive (probably ridiculous and possibly offensive/ignorant) question to ask you: How conservative and religious is Blacksburg? I loved the school and area and am ecstatic about my acceptance but was not able to get a good read on the social/political climate. I am essentially a slightly left-of-center moderate, non-religious Jew. Do you think there is a place for me there or will I be generally regarded as a pariah and have to live under a bridge? I know I must sound like a true California liberal idiot but I am completely unfamiliar with the south and unfortunately don't have much to go on. Will my moderately liberal mindset cause problems? Will I be ostracized because I think this country has more important things to worry about than gays marrying or joining the military? Or should I just keep my dirty hippyness out West with the rest of the shoeless clowns?

 

[Ghost22]

You seriously won't have time for things other than, "Is that on the test?"

You're making mountains out of mole-hills.

...but to be on the safe side, leave the hemp hoodies and birkenstocks at home.

 

[Vita]

You'll be fine. There are a lot of religious people in the area, but I never faced any discrimination (I'm not religious). It is a college town, so there is a lot of diversity. I used to hang out at the Bubble Tea place in University mall and was almost always the only white chick there, and I was never treated any differently for it.

Blacksburg is a college town so you get the typical mix of people/ ideas as you would in any college setting.

Out on rotations, you might see patients that are very Christian depending on where you get placed (For example: Asheville, NC is one of our sites and is very liberal; I am in Abingdon, Va, which is much more conservative. . I still haven't seen any discrimination, it is just that patients in that area tend to have church be a very big part of their lives and like to talk about God. I've never had a patient even ask me my beliefs or anything like that, though.

 

[J-Rad]

I grew up in the Northeast and have lived in the South (including Virginia), The Deep South (prior to being displaced by a certain hurricane), the midwest, and central South. I'm an atheist and a libertarian (so most of my my social views don't jibe well with conservatism). While it can take a small amount of getting used to the religiosity of certain regions (in some places about the third question you get asked by anyone is "where do you go to church?"), it really isn't a bother, and they're generally asking out of a sense of kindness and friendliness. Be open to other people and they'll be open to you (heck, we even enrolled our kids in a religious home school co-op for socialization. On the intake form when it asked if we were Christians we said "no, but we have a lot of the same goals...").

Honestly, to play with stereotypes a bit: really, a lot of Californians who can't abide by any other place for any extended period are those that have that special brand of California-flaky and just can't understand why no one around them is cool with their flakiness like they are back home. Just be cool and you'll be fine.