you should start.

thank you so much for an amazing 2025!

I started this newsletter with the intention of sharing a little bit more about my life as a writer and as a person trying to have a humanities major, even though I was scared to be ignored, as we all do. All I can say right now is “oh my god, how on EARTH did we get here??!!!”

I also wanted to honor a literature teacher I had in high school, who taught me to be present in everything that I do, and who sadly passed away before seeing all the friends I finally was able to make, not because of social status, or appearance, but because of shared love. I could finally share all the love I felt for my experiences, my favorite authors, Anthony Bourdain (if you know about this one, you have been a part of my life for a long time and that's so scary, but cool), and finally, literature. My reason of starting this newsletter in the first place (funnily enough).

Fast forward to a year later, and we still have so much to talk about, so much to experience together, so much love to cultivate and to grow, so many new people that are going to be so important in my future journey. My beautiful dear A, my favorite teacher, what would you say if you saw all of this? You'd probably freak out over the fact that I'm also studying to be someone else's favorite teacher, one day. Professor, in fact. But I'll never be “Professor” to you. Or to anyone reading this.

Trust me, writing for Substack and seeing so many people I admire just amaze me every time makes me think that there's always something to learn, every single day. That's what we're here for. This is the place to forget about boring titles and tiring daily lives. This is the place to dream BIG. This is the place to talk about your interests like you're a child again and this is the place to be heard. It has certainly healed me, in a lot of ways.

So you should start. I mean it!!!!!!! Even though it's just you and the void for a while. Being here and dedicating a while of your time to write your fiction, recipes, a funny story about your life and truly connecting with people regardless of who you are, or what you do will change you in ways you didn't even know were possible. Your Substack account is YOUR place, your little thought village, your sacred space for sharing what you always wanted to read. Nothing is uninteresting, nothing is too niche.

Before we head into all the amazing things we’re going to do together in 2026, I sincerely wanted to say thank you to every single person who decided to subscribe, like and comment on the posts of this beautiful mess I am proudly to call Certified. Also, thank you so much for sticking around and letting me be your mailman for literature news in Certified’s sister, Underlined.

Thank you for keeping up with all the rebrands and new things (I promise I'm finally satisfied with what we have now). I’ve also been so very INCREDIBLY sick this 2025, so thank you for the patience. Thank you for the kind words and messages and caps lock dms that say “GIRL ARE YOU OK?”, I appreciate it so much. Turns out I may need to read your words as much as you need to read my words.

You'll watch me grow older with you, once you hit that subscribe button, you know it's forever, right?!

Jokes aside (or maybe not), you make my life better in so many ways, and I am always so grateful to see that I have not been speaking into the void this whole time, never.

There’s so much to do, so much to see, so much to write about. So many cool people to cross paths with… A writer never gets old, my mother said to me one time.

I love you, happy new year.

you should start.