about the blog.
I’m Sara, a life enthusiast motivated by helping others and building connections. After graduating college with a journalism/mass communications degree in 2006, my priorities included travel, meeting new people, and learning the ways of the world firsthand. Throughout my twenties, I lived in more than 15 apartments in five states and three countries. I traveled, explored new cultures, and wrote about my experiences of growing up, remembering my roots and living a life free of regret.
Three weeks after my 32nd birthday, I was diagnosed with autoimmune disease and multiple co-infections that left me bedridden, cognitively limited, and continuously unsure of my fate and mortality. My life of spontaneous road trips and flights to anywhere quickly turned into rigid schedules, extensive medical research, learned self-advocacy, and strict treatment regimens to manage my debilitating health issues. As with many of life’s hardships, I had to decide whether to merely survive my limitations or learn how to cope through them and thrive.
I chose the latter and, with that, my journey of navigating roadmaps and adulthood expanded into a new way of living life well. Through this process, I’ve found stability in my hometown, adopted a clean and natural lifestyle, and have my hands in several pots within the fields of mental health and social work.
Read more about my health journey here.
I originally started this blog in 2010 under the name Live by Ladybugs. Read more about the evolution of Sara Meets World here.
more about Sara.
Throughout my twenties, I lived too nomadic a life to put much about my location or career in writing. After graduating from St. Bonaventure University in 2006, my priorities included travel, meeting new people, and learning the ways of the world firsthand. Raised in Western New York, I’ve also lived in Italy, Orlando, Denver, Chicago, New Orleans, Rwanda, and New York City (Brooklyn and Harlem). Now in my thirties, I’ve faced a series of life-altering health issues, found stability in my hometown, and have my hands in several pots within the fields of mental health and social work.
I’ve spent many days wondering why people are a certain way and pondering the meaning of life’s seemingly random occurrences. I have deep passions for mental wellness and social justice and believe in the power of paying it forward. I see communication as fundamental to life as chocolate and guacamole and combine social media with my often-louder-than-necessary voice to bring people and ideas together.
With a passion for culture, diversity, relationships and finding my role in creating world peace, I find the most insightful conversations are often struck up with strangers in airports, public buses and bars. Much of my writing has aimed to reach the thoughtful souls of Generation Y and has included reflections of world issues, travel, relationships, health, human rights, and maintaining sanity while growing up.
I despise eating animals, never leave home without a camera, and love Nutella (really, I centered an entire blog post around the Italian staple – though this was since lost in the unfortunate demise of my last blog platform in 2019. In 2007, I went skydiving over the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, Colorado and my parachute did not open, subsequently requiring the use of a “back-up” parachute. This circumstance sums up the story of my life, as I often think of a backup plan for the initial plan that never goes as planned while I’m already spiraling into the abyss.
what’s up with the ladybugs?
Inspired by a short scene from the movie “Under the Tuscan Sun,” my friend, Rachel, and I – both curious, developing and reflective college students at the time of the movie’s 2003 release – adopted the free-spirited ladybug to symbolize our belief that the simple act of letting go would lead us through a stronger, more content way of life.
Over the years, the ladybug has provided us comfort in relationships, job interviews and seemingly hopeless life crossroads. It would remind us to let go of the details we hold too tight, accept the unresolved answers to our questions, and trust that ladybugs will reappear when we stop looking so hard for them.
We often see ladybugs in unexpected places. They sit on our car dashboards, crawl up our sleeves and climb windows in our offices. Oftentimes in life, the harder we look for answers the more difficult it is to reach conclusions. Like the challenges we face, the struggles we battle, and the questions we long to answer, ladybugs are tough to find when sought after. Still, they continue to appear when we least expect them to, reminding us that letting go – or in other words, deciding to simply be – will eventually lead us to what we are looking for.
“Listen, when I was a little girl, I used to spend hours looking for ladybugs. Finally, I’d just give up and fall asleep in the grass. When I woke up, they were all over me.”
Under the Tuscan Sun
Sara Lives Well.
Sara Lives Well is a clean living and wellness business highlighted through Sara Meets World. It shares education, resources and personal stories about mind-body wellness, conscious living, and eliminating toxicity. SLW strives to empower every person to be a conscious consumer, informed thinker, and to take a mindful, intentional approach to the health of themselves + the world. The act of living well encompasses a person’s physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual components. It gives us energy to engage with life in a meaningful and fulfilling way. I believe we all need and deserve this.
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