Thank you for your kind words and for sharing your great piece with me.

May I suggest you take the subtitle and make it the title of your piece, and then email yourfriends@medium.com and let them know you gave your piece a new title that more clearly spells out what the piece is about, and would they please reconsider it for curation?

I’ve heard from a lot of writers that this works, and if this one wasn’t curated, I’m guessing it’s only because the title doesn’t give a clear idea of what the piece will be about. (Also, add photo attribution in the caption to show you have rights to use the photo.)

(Maybe you don’t care about curation, but it will be able to inspire more readers if it’s curated!)