The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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After three years in a house far away from people my age, I'm finally moving back into an apartment. I'm looking for two types of advice/help/etc:
How to make friends in an apartment complex? I'm planning on going to the pool in summer months, saying hi in the hallways, starting an apartment group chat (if there isn't one already), introducing myself to the neighbors on the first day, maybe hosting an event, etc. Any other ideas that are simple and effective?
Quality of life improvements I can make to an apartment? I'm planning on Hue lights for simulating sunrise in my bedroom, installing a smart thermostat, and a bidet. Open to anything else!
On 1, not to be too much of a downer, but to at least temper expectations, IME it's been extremely rare to nonexistent to have groups of friends based around an apartment complex. It might happen if the majority of people there are all in some new life situation, like just got to college, or just moved to a new city for their first professional job. If everyone is in very different life situations and already has their own group of friends and family, it's pretty much not happening.
IME, you can't form and sustain an actual group of friends by any individual's sheer will. Everybody who would be in the group has to actually want to be in a new group and make at least some active effort to keep it going. I've seen more than a few "groups" that one or two people seemed really invested in fade into nothing because nobody else was really that into it.
By all means try to be social to those around you. But probably a more realistic expectation is to maybe make one or two actual friends. Try a bunch of other activities as well. You may either find an already-existing group you might be accepted into, or maybe make one or two individual friends at several things and convince some of them to all get together regularly. And don't be too surprised if nobody you meet in many such activities seems to have much interest in being actual friends with anybody else there, including you.
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Are you sure this apartment is going to have people your age? It seems like a crapshoot whether those people will be any good.
I'd focus effort on joining some activities like kickball where you can meet and hangout with people your age, and just be willing to invite them over and host at your place.
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QOL improvements for apartment:
What’s an eight sleep mattress?
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