Growing up, I remember a handful of neighbors that my family had. Most of them were fine, but in my memory, none of them were anything great. Just kind of there, and sometimes pains in the ass.

When I moved to Massachusetts, it was just me and the person I moved for, in a building with six apartments and most of the people in them were awful. Loud, rude, messy, yelling out the window, yelling into a window and overall not friendly. There was one who I talked to a lot, shared things with like food and stories and when she died I was devastated. She was like, a dream neighbor. Friendly and fun but also liked her space and gave you yours. Aside from her, I’d wait until the coast was clear to leave my apartment, even to take out the trash.

Safe to say I’ve never had neighbors that felt like anything more than people sharing the same building/block.

Last year when I moved into my current apartment, it was me and who I moved for and very little connections for me outside of that. When we separated, I thought about not staying. I thought about getting a different apartment, I thought about moving to another state, I worried I’d be alone and lonely. The people in the building were all mostly okay, but there was never a click for me. Until there was. People moved out, people moved in. I hadn’t really thought about the community of people I belong to now, until someone mentioned it in a group text with our landlord.

These aren’t just neighbors, these are my friends, my people.

People who I genuinely care about, people who I love to feed, support and spend time with.

These are people who know things about me that people I’ve known forever might not.

People who make me laugh until I almost pee my pants.

People who don’t let me fall into the fire pit when I’ve had four too many.

People who make me feel safe.

People who cram into my apartment at 1am for pancakes.

People who trust me with their troubles and their secrets.

People who threw me a little party on my birthday (w/2 cakes!).

People who remind me who I am and don’t take that for granted or take advantage of it.

People I never expected to meet, or know or care about. And for the first time, the neighbors are the best part of where I live.