Story Exploratory's Back to School Giveaway!

Yesterday I shared how my identity is still evolving and how this year I became a small business owner. I'm so proud of Story Exploratory and am excited to share it with the world. 

To celebrate back-to-school season, Story Exploratory is hosting a Back to School Giveaway!

Here's the link to the Story Exploratory Facebook page so you can join in on the fun!

My Journey with Project Enye Dream Accelerator

In the fall, my friend Stella posted about hosting a screening of a documentary called Being Enye. It caught my eye right away because it's all about growing up as first generation here in the United States when your parents are from a Spanish speaking country. My mom grew up in Guatemala and I was born here in the United States which makes me an Enye. I followed Project Enye right away on Instagram and was instantly connected to the woman who made the film, Denise Soler Cox.

Not long after this happened, I saw that Denise was inviting people to be part of the beta version of her coaching program. She mentioned in her stories that anyone interested would get one-hour phone call with her whether you signed up for the coaching program or not. I decided to give it a shot. After Danielle shut down her agency, I queried a YA novel and a picture book and was feeling very stuck in a rut.

The phone call with Denise was awesome. She was so easy to talk to and she wanted to hear all about my writing and why I thought I would want to work with her. By the end of the call I knew I wanted to work with her. In my publishing journey, I've truly missed being able to work with people of color and the fact that Denise is Latina made me feel seen.

The coaching program started in November and it was during this first cohort of the Project Enye Dream Accelerator that I remembered my dream of starting a fun and funky writing space called Story Exploratory. Thanks to the coaching  program, I was able to get Story Exploratory up and running and I can call myself a small business owner now.

Denise recently launched a podcast called The Self-Ish Latina and in her third episode, she shares a visit with Gary Vaynerchuk from Vayner Media. I started following Gary on Instagram and love learning from him. He's always super honest and talks about the importance of being honest.

Well, last week, I got to hear Gary speak in person and it was so fun. He was part of a day-long event that also included Tony Robbins. Tony was as high energy as I had hoped and I left rejuvenated.

Me and Gary. :)

Gary on stage speaking.

Since November, I learned so much about stretching past my upper limits and have had a blast hosting Story Exploratory workshops. They helped me get my energy flowing again and brought me to a place where I can write again. I'm slowly started working on my writing again and am so excited to have time to truly dig in this summer.

One of the coolest things about being on this journey with Story Exploratory is that I've gotten closer to one of our friends. Billy the Baker was the Best Man in our wedding. We met in college when he worked with Chad as a manager for the NIU football team. Billy is passionate about making cakes and will be going to culinary school as he launches his own business called Billy the Baker. I helped him work on his super sharp website and we went to the Tony Robbins event together.

Billy and me.

I'll write more about how life changing the Project Enye Dream Accelerator coaching program has been but for now I wanted to share a brief overview of where it has taken me. I never would have dreamed that Billy and I would be at an event like this listening to business people like Gary Vee and Tony Robbins but there we were and it was pretty awesome. 

This month, the Story Exploratory workshop is about staying close to your true north and using it to guide you. I'm super excited to talk about my journey with Story Exploratory and the power of following your heart and your dreams because you never know where it will take you. I can't wait!

2018, meet 2019

In my bullet journal, there's an empty checkbox that keeps glaring at me. 

So I'm finally writing my goodbye, 2018 blog post. We're only halfway into January but no big deal!

I hit the ground running in 2019 with my focus zoned in on my first Story Exploratory workshop that I led yesterday. It was fantastic!!!! And it was the best way to start 2019 and to bid 2018 a big, fat, see ya later. 

My one little word for 2018 was love and I found that I needed a whole lot of love last year, especially after my agent was accused of fraud and disappeared from the face of the Earth, which included the publishing world and me. There were ups and downs and maybe some years feel more like ups and others like downs. Despite going through a lot of emotions, I made it. I'm still standing. I'm here and ready for 2019. 

 My one little word for 2019 is:

The biggest gift 2018 gave me was to learn to truly love myself. Life is funny. Just when I think I know myself, I learn so much more. Who knows what 2019 will bring but I'm determined to let my energy and zest for life shine. 

And that's exactly what I did yesterday at my ¿Quién Soy Yo? workshop. Nine lovely people came to learn with me. We explored identity, talked about descriptive writing, and connected as a community. I shared my love of writing and they shared themselves with me. Believe it or not, taking a step like this felt monumental. It was scary and I was anxious but I trusted in everything I learned from the last year and from all my years and I poured all the love into this amazing group of writers. I did it. 

And look at their smiling faces! We had a blast. I'll be sharing more about what they had to say and how friends reading this can join online if you can't make it to an in person workshop but what I truly want to say right now is thank you. Thank you to this fantastic group who came out to kick off 2019 with me. I felt the love but I also felt their brilliance and I'm so grateful. 

I can't wait to see how bright 2019 is going to shine!

Story Exploratory Makes a Come Back

In the fall of 2012, I started a new role (still in education) that didn't involve working directly with students. It's hard to believe it's been seven years. That first year and the next couple of years, I found myself thinking about the impact I was making now that I wasn't interacting with students on a daily basis in the sam way that I had been my entire career up until then. It was definitely a switch and I definitely did some soul searching. I still think about kids everyday. I miss teaching everyday. A super smart woman I worked for once would remind me all the time that if I ever stopped longing to go back, if I ever stopped thinking about kids, if I ever forgot what it was like to be in a classroom, then it was time to go back. I think what she meant was that we should always work in our non-classroom roles with a teacher's heart. 

  

I love my role as an instructional coach and I love the district I'm working in. It's small and I know all the teachers and most of our students. Now that it's my fourth year here, I'm finally feeling like it's home. When I left my previous district, it was like leaving family but now I feel like I have a new family in my current district. 

I've had the opportunity to share my love of reading and writing with kids in our district throughout the years but I keep craving more. I keep thinking of the time I've spent at 826CHI and how I wish we could have a similar space here in Mundelein. A few years ago I put a tiny dream out into the universe. It was a dream of having my own fun and funky space for writing that would welcome people of all ages and celebrate the power of story. 

In 2015, I started Story Exploratory. At first it was a blog, then I merged that blog with this blog, and now it's a website. Actually it's a website with a workshop page and a way to register for my very first ever public Story Exploratory workshop. I'm starting with a workshop I call ¿Quién Soy Yo? after a game we used to play with my Mamita. I'm not sure what Story Exploratory will evolve into or how or when but I'm excited to see where it takes me. 

It's all because I'll always be a teacher at heart and I'll always love kids and reading and writing and because I did some soul searching and realized having a space of my own to nurture writers feels like something I'm supposed to do. 

If you're nearby, I hope you can make it to one of my workshops. Maybe even this first one! And if you aren't close...I have some ideas of what I could offer to you too but if you have some suggestions, please let me know. And either way, if you have some love and encouragement to send my way, I'd greatly appreciate it.