Q: Tell us about your health journey in college and beyond.

Health has always interested me—perhaps because I’m a lousy sufferer. Only in recent years have I become more passionate about enjoying good health through healing. My leap into motherhood is probably the reason: it’s much more fun raising a family when everyone has energy and feels well!

As an overeager, perfectionist college student, I was perpetually drowning in assigned reading: thirty pages of Plato, a hundred pages of Dante (make that two hundred, still behind from last class), two chapters of the biology text (can I skip that?), etc., etc. At a certain point—around 1 AM—my eyes started to blur. The last thing I wanted to do was keep up with the philosophy assignments, let alone read for fun.

One of the purposes of Curate is to cultivate community. Now, cultivate is an interesting word, isn’t it? It literally means to foster the growth of or to improve by labor, care, or study - it is, by definition, hard work. Each community you create is a journey; it takes effort, time, and resources to grow, it has its own ups and downs, its own beginnings and ends. Through high school, college, and beyond - each new community will refine you and teach you something about yourself.

Everyone seems to be full of advice these days. From your favorite celebrity to that travel-blogging insta-influencer you stumbled across, there’s no shortage of people out there telling you how you should live your life. So why should you add Curate to the cacophony of voices trying to convince you to go this way or do that thing? It’s a fair question, and I’ll try to give it a fair answer. Before you dismiss Curate as just another how-to blog, allow me to explain a few reasons why I think it’s worth joining the Curate community.

The beginning of my last semester of college was emotionally charged from the very first day of class. I was excited to reconnect with friends and continue treasuring the season of lasts. Little did I know the ways Jesus would work in my heart to grow me in the coming months, and I am so thankful for the timely influence of Curate.