One of my strongest qualities is my ability to nurture living things. I do this in a myriad of ways, but it is what I do best. I’ve nurtured my children through the many stages of childhood and teen years. Throughout my life I’ve nurtured cats, dogs, hamsters, lizards, chickens, and many other creatures. Plants, however, I haven’t nurtured as well. Let’s just say that I leave the plant care in the capable hands of my husband.

So, what does nurturing things that breathe have to do with running PeKu? A lot. I think of PeKu as a living, breathing creature. I celebrate its birthday. I check on it every night before I go to sleep and every morning when I wake. It is something that I have nurtured since its inception. Whether it be thinking about a publication’s design, a new category of columns, or a social media campaign, I focus on the care of PeKu.

A key thing to note is that nurturing means many things to me. Although nurturing might conjure an image of snuggling a baby in a blanket, nurturing can be both praising and correcting. If I had only fawned over my pets and children, I would have a household of obnoxious, spoiled beings. No, sometimes nurturing means working harder, making tough decisions, and lots of sweat and tears.

Every day I think about PeKu- how I can make it better for our readers, how it can function more efficiently, how it can grow into an even better publishing company. Sometimes it can be accomplished by fun projects, such as a social media contest. Other times it requires a less pleasant task, such as eliminating a column. Regardless to whether it is positive or negative, the end goal is to create the best PeKu I can.

Kids, pets, PeKu, I’ll keep nurturing. Plants, you’re on your own.