By Conor Sweetman

Here at Love Is Moving, the new year is ushering in a lot of transitions for the magazine and website. In fact, many individuals who work closely with LIM are experiencing personal transitions—whether it be Isaac and Amelia Godwin (featured on the very first print issue) who will soon be the proud parents of a baby girl; Dagmar Morgan (a core contributing writer) who has recently gotten married; or the multitude of our writers who are entering new schools, cities, or workplaces.

At LIM we’re honoured to “transition in” a friend of ours, Katie Gregoire, who you’ll be seeing on the new Love Is Moving app! Here’s an introductory chat with her about growing up, her upcoming marriage, gaining Youtube followers and giving glory to God.  

Hey Katie, how’ve you been?

I’ve been really great today—gotten a lot accomplished. My roommate and I picked up my wedding dress this afternoon, and now we’re watching terrible Hallmark Christmas movies!

Sounds like a productive day. As you prepare for your wedding, what life stage do you feel like you’re in right now? University student? Young adult? Grown adult? 

I feel like I’ve been an adult for a while—even when I was in university, I was working the job I knew I’d be doing into the future, so I never really had that starving-student-trying-to-find-a-job kind of time. I feel like I skipped the student stage in a way. I’m a young adult making my life now, I don’t feel like I’m in limbo.  

From the time I was three years old, I was putting a third of my allowance in the University Jar. It helped because, in a way, we were being prepared our whole lives to be independent, without our parents setting crazy expectations on us or anything. But there was an expectation that we were working towards something more, and an understanding that highschool was temporary. So, when I made the transition to university, my parents had raised me with intentionality so that it wasn’t a complete 180-degree shift. 

What led you into the world of running a successful Youtube channel? 

Any good thing comes from stupid motivations right? I started my channel when I was 16 to get the attention of a boy I was friends with haha. Within four months it actually did work! But at that point I’d built a mini-channel and God was already doing some cool stuff, so I realized it could be something I actually pursue for God’s glory rather than selfish motivations.  

The motivations of my heart switched at around 17 years old and God began opening doors and showing me that I had a voice and I could actually use it for good. My grandma always said to me growing up “To whom much has been given, much is expected,” so I knew I wanted to use this platform and offer it to God. I always wanted to do ministry, but not necessarily in a normal church setting, so God gave me a cool way to do ministry that allows me to flourish in my skill set. 

 How do you connect with young people in a stage that you may have never actually been immersed in? 

As much as I knew what I wanted to do originally, I did it the wrong way, so I had just as much of a learning and growing experience. We have this idea that we have to go to university to find ourselves. But that’s one expensive way to find ourselves! We tend to think that since we’re only 18 and we have so much time, we can just kind of glide through the years of university with little care or thought. But I’ve realized that every year of our lives is so important. You have value, even if its not in academia!  

It is a terrifying time of transition into adulthood, and there’s a lot of growing pains, but we can’t compare our successes and failures to our friends—we have specific purposes that can be discouraged by such an intense time of transition. There’s so much discouragement around getting into schools, scholarships, jobs. If you didn’t get into the school, that’s not where God wants you; He will prepare you for what He’s called you to.

Awesome encouragement, thank you. So how are you preparing for this next transition of your life into marriage? 

With much excitement! But I’ve come to realize—as pessimistic as this may sound—I’ve realized that I’m stupid and make bad decisions sometimes, and so does David! So when we’re married, it’s not like everything will magically turn into a fairytale, but because we have Christ, I know that life will be amazing together through His work in us and the work He’ll do through us.  

I’m trying to keep everything in perspective, because we tend to get caught up in this over-romanticization of marriage, but I’m just trying to stay grounded and excited. I let myself be happy and enjoy it, but without creating a false reality that could actually trap me.  

How do you anticipate continuing your ministry as you move into your new life context? 

We always have career dreams and goals, and that’s where I’m at. I still intend on doing videos every single week for Youtube, and that will always be my base. But this past week I got to speak at the Christian Entrepreneurial Conference in Toronto, it was awesome! Getting to meet Lorna Dueck from Crossroads, getting to speak about my business—I love public speaking.  

I’ve come to realize I want to move my career into a public speaking setting. I want to be face-to-face, relating on a tangible level. Hopefully one day I’ll be going on tours speaking at churches and ministries. I never want to get ahead of myself, but I’m excited.  

I think being married will actually be very good for my job, because I’ll have all the experience already behind me, but moving forward I’ll be able to relate to a whole new audience and be able to help people learn from my mistakes, hopefully being a kind of big-sister figure for younger girls in their walk with God.