"Who am I? A simple question we address with complex answers. For its sake we revive ancient ethnicities; summon prophets, messengers, teachers and saints. Languages and dialects. A familial, vocational, and social class history. Bank accounts, stories, tales, gossip and love affairs, ambitions and desires. But when it comes to me, my story is simpler. [...]

I am small, imperfect on the outside and on the inside, and pursuing perfection in neither. I ride waves to unknown destinations. I cross lands and I have the lives of all the people I meet cross me in return. I take out my pen, flip through the pages of my story, I write, I rearrange, I draw and colour it, I hug it affectionately: this is my story, this is me, my only truth, my unique truth. Whenever I find myself stranded in a new place, in a new empty apartment, in a big unfamiliar city, I empty my bags piously, I arrange my small belongings, practice my small habits, read my storybook, take a long deep breath, I am well, I am at home, I am home. For I carry my home within me, wherever I shall travel, wherever I shall land. For I am my home."

Lina is from Syria and spent four years in Japan studying medical science. She graduatet with a PhD in psychology at the Freie Universität Berlin and works as a psychologist with refugees.