Creating a Support System: Neighbors

I wish I had realized sooner that there were many simple things I could have done right from the beginning of residency to start building a support system for myself.  For a long time I pridefully tried to do most things on my own.  It took me much too long to realize I needed to allow others to help me, and at the very least let them be aware of my life and struggles, so they could have greater compassion and understanding for my shortcomings.  Having this support system earlier on would have made my life a lot less stressed and blessed our entire family.

Today I want to talk about neighbors.

When we moved to our new home to start residency I was almost halfway through my pregnancy with our second child and had an almost 2 year old.  We moved to a condo building surrounded by childless households.  I had the impression a couple months into our move that I should bring some treats to our neighbors and introduce ourselves.  I felt a little awkward because the closest holiday was Halloween (I felt I needed something to bring and an additional reason to knock on their door).  My husband was never home so it would be just me and my little one and I hate doing things on my own.  I didn't act on the impression.  I felt like I should do it again at Christmas but we were feeling just sick enough for it to be another reason not to act.
+965
Fast forward to a year and a half into residency.  I finally decided to bring goodies around at Christmas time but only after getting complaints from our neighbors about loud children.  It was really more of an apology effort and only two of our 6 neighbors were home.  The next year we went around again.  This time all of our neighbors were home and were so kind and grateful for the effort we extended.  It gave them a chance to put a face with their (sometimes noisy) neighbors and hopefully gained us cute/nice points with all of them.  A few weeks later one of our neighbors returned the gesture by bringing us homemade bread.

When our neighbor returned the favor it made me realize what a support I could have created much earlier.  For a long while I was so busy and stressed I had the mentality that all I had time for was to worry about myself and my family and I had to do it all alone because, mostly, I didn't know anyone and didn't have time to get to know anyone.  How wrong I was!  I'm sure if we had initially introduced ourselves and even let our neighbors know in advance our situation I'm sure we would have had understanding and even helpful neighbors. In fact our neighbors next door will often give me a heads up about things going on in the building and are always friendly.  I wish I had listened to that voice and had the courage to reach out sooner.