Becoming a Regular at Places in Your Area

“I’ve lived in the same neighborhood for 6 years and love that kind of familiarity. It gives you time to get to know people, the bodega man, the barista you go to, the dry cleaning service people, the florist outside the deli, the halal cart owners, the people to see on your route walking your dog, the shop owners and workers of your local places etc. pictured here is one of my dogs daily walk stops. He has befriended the staff at a parking garage, the principal of a school ect. It’s nice to build a sense of community and it often makes me think of in Covid when people lost this and it significantly impacted their mental health negatively. Ever since I have tried to intentionally build back this as a protective factor.”

“April is RIGHT (as always). My neighborhood friendships are so precious to me. And genuinely helpful: when I locked myself out of my apartment taking out the trash with no phone (and no bra), I was like oh cool I can just walk over to the bodega and use their phone to call a locksmith. Which just made me better friends with the guys at the bodega. And then my uncontrollable friendliness DID cause the locksmith to ask me out, which wasn’t ideal, but life is complicated.”