Neighborhood Experience

Hello my friends in @crossculture hope you all are doing well. Let me share a little of my neighborhood experience.

Neighbors are integral part of our homes, community and society. No one is an island. Humans are regarded as social animals, hence theres need to interact and associate with others.

I have had series of experiences with neighbors that have shaped my thinking and behavior towards life and socialization generally.

Years ago i lived in a small one room house.
A compund thaat had about 10 tenants including the house owner. I am naturally introverted and as such it takes me time to get to flow with others. When i moved in there, i stayed for about three weeks or so without having a long conversation with anyone.
It was basically greeting and exchanging of pleasantries for me.

For me, thats where i wanted to peg it because i know that familiarity can sometimes breed contempt
I didn't know someone was actually observing me closely.
So this young lady, who was living with her mum started coming close, she engaged me in some conversations, always came around to borrow some items and would want to use my phone to do somethings. I started flowing with her anyways just to be a nice neighbor.

She Started crossing boundaries and wanted coming unnecessarily close. Wanted staying in my place longer then necessary, even late in the night.
I became very uncomfortable with this, i had to speak to her about it, considering the fact that she stayed with her mum and the other neighbors began to look at me with some judgemental eye.

She literally refused to stop coming, most times i had to lock myself inside and pretend as if i wasnt at home just to put her away.

So on this particular day, she came around, she was using my phone to do something it was getting late, i begged her to leave so she could tidy up stuff at home for her mum. She refused, after some minutes,
For the first time ever, her mum batched into my house furiously and asked why i kept her daughter in my house up till that time.

She dragged her out and warned me never to allow her daughter come in again.
It was a very embarrassing moment for me.

After the tension was calm. I went to her and explained everything. She understood. The matter was settled amicably that was how the unnecessary familiarity ended.
Thank God i left the place to a more private environment. However i have learnt my lessons.

Thank you for reading. I am @ityetuk