Your first apartment will be quiet in a way that scares you, then saves you.

A room with nobody else’s noise in it is disorienting at first, because you have never had to supply your own. The quiet feels like something missing, which is why most people fill it instantly with a screen or a call. Sit with it for a few weeks and it flips: it becomes the place you can hear what you think, and the reason the rest of the week stays survivable.

When the silence gets uncomfortable, give it ten minutes before you fill it. Open a window, make a tea, let the room be quiet around you. The scary part passes faster than expected.