If you’ve read my previous blogs, you’ll know that I just moved houses recently within St. Catharines. With a new house comes a new neighbourhood and new neighbours. Now I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t exactly the greatest neighbour at my old house the past two years. Not to say that I was rude or disrespectful in any way, but I certainly didn’t make any extra effort to reach out to my neighbours. In the end it resulted in a back and forth, tug-of-war type battle between my next door neighbour and I, moving a large pine Christmas wreath from one lawn to the next as neither of us wanted to claim it (I don’t think it was actually either of ours but neither of us could sum up the strength to dispose of what we saw as the other person’s garbage).
Anyway now that I’ve got a new house and a fresh start, I want to improve my neighbourly relations. I started last weekend during my roommate’s birthday party. We knew ahead of time that it was going to be a large group of around 30 people, and that we were going to host it in our big backyard, so (although mine and my neighbour’s yard are divided my tall shrubs) my roommates and I made the effort to let the neighbours know of the party ahead of time. My sweet elderly neighbour was very understanding and told us to have lots of fun! Comparing this situation with what could have happened (noise complaints, yelling, etc.) I realized the importance of building relationships with neighbours.
In fact it’s so important, that Brock’s Off-Campus Living department has produced a brochure for students, outlining how to be a good neighbour. Click HERE to view it!
And if you need further inspiration, look no further than my good friend Mr. Rogers.
