I draw my bow across the A-string, its reverberations resonating throughout the small room. I hear Hanna across the hall, the sweet, high-pitched sounds of her scales piercing through the walls like the chirping of a bird. I feel the vibrations through the ceiling and immediately know it is Alexa, whose room is above mine, beginning her usual practice routine. I feel the scratchiness all the way from my ears to my teeth as she shifts the sharp metal music stand to the perfect spot and jabs the tip of her cello’s endpin into the floorboards like a warrior stabbing the enemy with his blade. It takes one minute, just as I predicted, for the tick-ticking of her metronome to begin its perpetuating pulsations as she begins her etude. I stop for a moment and close my eyes to just listen to these sounds and soak up the world around me. I am now, for the first time, truly and completely at peace.