This space is still under construction and always will be

My first post for paid subscriptions. I write about my journey on Substack so far - past, present, future

Illustration generated by Substack’s AI generator with prompts I wrote.

I first started this Substack exactly a year ago after reading

Sophia Hembeck

’s two books - Things I Have Noticed, & Things I Have Loved. I got them in Berlin just before flying to Riga, Latvia. I devoured them like a hungry ghost who had not been offered any food from her relatives for more than a century.

I have always written poetry and short stories. Ever since I could remember, writing has always been part of my life. However, what these two books by Sophia Hembeck did for me was to give me the courage to write directly about things that have happened to me personally - using the essay format.

I also learnt about Substack because I read those books. So it seems like everything has a butterfly effect. My friend L, moved to Latvia. I wanted to visit her. My other friend S moved to Berlin and I thought why not visit her before my flight to Riga.

Now Riga is an important part of this story because I spent a lot of time in cafes, sipping caramel lattes and just writing in this in lined book that I desperately bought at a bookshop because I had stupidly forgot to carry any notebook along with me from Dresden.

What came out of my time in those cafes is this personal essay:

Embracing the phrase “You’re strong.”

Here are some pictures of the first draft of the essay: