I feel an affinity with the Shard, even though it is a symbol of the wealth and status I am so far removed from. It was just an idea when I first arrived there and it grew up in the city at the same rate I did. I like that I can remember a time when it did not exist. It is proof that time is moving forward, especially during those days when I am sliding backwards.

At first, I thought that reluctance to relinquish the past was a refusal to acknowledge the passing of time. Now I understand it more as a symbol of temporality and a reminder that there are layers of lived experience criss-crossing the surfaces of our lives, invisible to us. There is room for everything here. There are traces of the past in the present and there is space for the future, too.