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KLYE spent most of his adolescent years growing up in a small town by the name of Rivers. 

It's a quaint little shithole with a population around 1400 or so. You could bike across town in 10 minutes if you were a slow poke, everyone knew everyone and for the most part everyone was friendly. However not much really ever happens in that town or comes out of there other than stoners and alcoholics... Frankly makes sense as there is not much else to do! Getting back to the point though which roughly translates into that where I grew up you waved or greeted people when you walked by them, this is just kinda what people did!

A bit of a wild streak in my late teens and early 20's had me moving around a fair amount looking for a place to establish myself and I ended up heading out west to Alberta, which is nearly a right of passage for most boys growing up in small prairie town. The unfortunate part about growing up in the Canadian province of Manitoba is that it's Manitoba.. 

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With only 2 cities over 50,000 inhabitants one of which being Brandon and the other being Winnipeg.. which proudly sat as the murder capital of Canada for some time and likely still does. Kind of just a scuzzy province I guess, oh well.. At least we pay the highest provincial taxes for the privilege to be here right? 

Reconnecting with the out west adventure It was like being in another world being a small town boy ending up out west in the city of Calgary which boasts 1,200,000 people. I'll always remember looking down the main street of Calgary during rush hour and just seeing an endless sea of all different races going about their days, trying not to walk on top of eachother to get to their next task. 

No one really acknowledged eachother for the most part and people completely kept to themselves. Combine this with being overwhelmed by the sheer variation of humans around me it almost felt like I'd found a different world.

I'll save the Calgary chapter of my life for another post but to make a long story short I ended up getting swallowed and spit out by the big city, ending up settling back in Manitoba in Brandon which I reside now. Which I must mention is basically the biggest small town ever. While it's comfortable and I know plenty of folks here the problem is that it is simply too small of a pond, everyone knows everyone and eventually you run out of ideas and options for things to do in such a small center.

<center><h1>Acknowledgment is Key</h1></center>

Most of the time I walk everywhere I go. Often times I meet other people on my treks and while I generally won't vocally greet everyone I meet as people tend to think I'm going to shank them or something I've always found that a nod in their direction seems to convey that I am not a threat and friendly. You'd be surprised the interesting people you can meet simply by acknowledging they exist and making a friendly gesture. I've never been jumped on the street before and I think a large reason for that is that regardless of the person, their gender,  the time of day or how many individuals are in a group I'll always nod and acknowledge.

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