The barista, the bus driver, the guy at the gym front desk. Keep saying hi and one day they’re part of your world.

Familiarity accumulates without anyone deciding on it. The people you see repeatedly in ordinary places start as functions and become, through nothing more than repetition and a few words, actual presences in your life. That layer of loose connection does more for how a place feels than most people expect.

Say hello properly to the same three people this month, and ask one small question beyond the transaction. Do not force it into a friendship; the value is in the lightness of it. Over a year those brief exchanges turn a route you pass through into a neighborhood.