Some People Who Are Good to Have as Friends

I'm one of those people who likes to know everyone. In my high school of 1200, I could probably tell you who about 75% of the school was, including faculty and staff. That was before Facebook, even. :) (I was in that last group of people who couldn't get Facebook until having a college email address.) At my undergrad of 2200, I could probably tell you about 60% straight out, and easily find out another 10-15% (likely with the help of Facebook and the other people I knew). At my current grad school I'm not quite as well connected yet, but I attribute that to being not at all invested in the school like I was when I was younger.

But anyway! There are definitely people with whom I always try to be friends. These people can help you out, give you information, and are, in general, good to know. The people listed below are the ones I currently have contact with, but this list is definitely not all-encompassing.

Apartment
- The maintenance guys. These are the people who will fix all your broken things, so you want to be on their good sides! I am always really nice to ours (we have two on-site handymen, and one of them tends to be the guy who always comes to fix our things). I always offer some water (especially if it's hot outside), and I always say hi whenever I see him around the complex. In turn, he is always really nice back and we routinely hardly ever have to wait at all to get anything done around our apartment.
- The front office people. At our place they are all ladies, coincidentally, and again I am always very nice to them. Luckily, they all seem to be really nice as well! Almost everyone who works in the office knows who I am (aka they know my first and last name and my apartment address), so whenever I need to put in a maintenance request or pick up a package they never have to ask who I am.
- The people who deliver packages. The same guy always delivers our UPS packages, and because he knows who I am and my address, if he sees me out around the complex while he's dropping things off, he will actually go grab anything for me and bring it out to me. That's ridiculously good service, if you ask me, and I definitely appreciate it.

School
- Department chair and head. If you need to complain about anything, you can take it straight to the top. Or, if you want to say something awesome, you can take that straight to the top, too.
- At least one person in each class. I always try to make decent friends with at least one person in each of my classes. Besides making life more enjoyable, this also means I could potentially be able to use them in case I was sick or had to go out of town. I, obviously, would do the same for them in the reverse situation. This semester, I also have worked out a carpool with one person in my class, and it is saving both of us quite a bit of gas money and wear-and-tear on our vehicles to share the driving load. Win!