Beginning a new year, there’s the trajectory of starting fresh, beginning a new cycle with a blank canvas. The other day I finally got around to clean a specific spot in my apartment that I realized I hadn’t touched before, and it feels as though my space has only just now fully transitioned into being mine, after slightly over a year of living in it. On a theoretical level I know that this house was built in 1904, and the apartment I am renting has been inhabited by countless humans, rats, and spiders, before me. I have no doubt that parts of the former tenants remain to this day, no matter how thorough my cleaning actions are, no matter how immersive my settlement proves to be.
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