Making Friends In An Apartment

You would think that making friends while living in an apartment would be easy since you see the same people all the time. It's not as easy as people think it is. Everyone living in an apartment has different schedules, different lifestyles, you never know who’s home at any coming time so being able to meet and connect with your neighbors in the hallway or when you're waiting for the elevator can be challenging.

I’ve noticed that it's rare to go on another floor and because of that you don't meet the people that live above or below you unless you have problems with noisy neighbors. The lobby and the mail room are the only places you really meet people from other floors and even then you could go weeks, maybe months without seeing anyone that don’t live on your floor. 

You have more acquaintances in an apartment than you do actual friends. People live private lives even when they’re front door is just a few feet away. You can be friendly, have a quick chat with them, but nothing goes past that. Everyone has something going on. You never know if someone’s home because you don’t see them pulling into their driveway so it's not like you can just look out your window and see their car and know if it's okay to stop by for a quick visit. 

Just because you leave so close to people and share common areas, doesn't mean you have instant friends. You hardly see your neighbors. I still haven’t met the guy across the hall from me. I can go months without seeing him and even when I do, we nod and say a quick hello. I don’t even know his name. Then there are people I’ll see everyday for a week then I won’t see them again for weeks, sometimes months.

It's a challenge when trying to be a good neighbor. You want to be respectable and give people space and their own privacy, but you also want to have some sort of friendly interaction just in case something happens. People in apartments just keep to themselves.