Last summer, I wrote a story for the first time in years.

I pressed publish on September 6 and kinda expected the internet to politely ignore me.

Six months later, there are over 10,000 of us here.

Which is a number that sounds abstract until I imagine all of you standing in one room and I immediately need to sit down.

I love that you’re here. Truly.

But I also realized something: I talk to you every week, and I know surprisingly little about who is actually reading.

So maybe we change that. I’ll start.

Hi, I’m Lina. I live in Germany’s second-largest city, which means my days are filled with train journeys, cafés, strangers with strong opinions, and the occasional existential crisis in the cereal aisle.

Here on Substack, I write about everyday life — about small encounters with strangers, about the thoughts of a woman slowly approaching 30, and about the strange, beautiful intensity of living in a big city.

Now I’m curious.

Who are you?