Most first apartments are small, loud and far from things. That’s not failure. That’s the starter level.

Your first place to live is a starting point, not a score. It is cheap because you are new, and being new is temporary. The trouble comes when you compare your first of something to someone else’s tenth and read the gap as proof about yourself. Almost everyone’s early years look unimpressive from the outside and feel like progress from the inside.

Notice where you are measuring a beginning against a finished thing. The older cousin’s car, the senior’s playing time, the account with thousands in it. Write down what level you are actually on, and what the next one needs from you.