Turning Dreams Into Reality

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“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” —Nelson Mandela

I have been retired for a year now, and I have taken on a part time job at a gift shop in Helotes, Texas. Whimsical Annie’s is a female owned business. The owner, Linda Reyes, is a former educator (teacher, reading specialist, and assistant principal). She retired with a dream of one day owning her own business. After a year into retirement, she made her dream a reality. Her shop offers a wonderful variety of inspirational and whimsical gifts. In my new work environment my eyes are being open to more and more female entrepreneurs. A couple of weeks ago, I walked into Revolution Refillery and met Emily, the owner. She is doing her part to help us learn to reduce the amount of packaging that we go through in our homes from all the cleaning products we use. The premise of her business is to reuse the containers by refilling them at her store. It is an admirable and important idea. While visiting her, I found out about a collective called Elysia Collective Co. It is made up of 20 female entrepreneurs all under one roof! They represent the diversity of our amazing city. I popped over there yesterday and was greeted by such enthusiastic young women who were working at the shop att hat time. All the products sold there work so well together. They have done an amazing job managing 20 different businesses represented there. The collective will be celebrating their first anniversary on October 8th.

As I drove off from the collective, I contemplated how proud I am of all the women getting out of there and making their dreams come true/reaching their goals early on in life. It made me think of other women whom I know personally who have done the same. I’ll mention some of them at the risk of leaving someone out (unintentionally, of course!). Friends, forgive me if I do so. All of these ladies I have met during my career in education. I either worked with them directly and/or learned from them and consider them my friends.

Dr. Frances Gonzalez-Garcia own Trinity Elite Education Co. She consults with school districts who seek her knowledge in education. Frances also teaches university courses. Through Trinity Elite, she runs an awesome book club, GG’s Book Club, that I am a proud member of. Her company works hard to give back tot he community as well through a community literacy project.

Jennifer Vincent, a middle school Language Arts Teacher, owns Story Exploratory. She offers her knowledge of writing to help writers of all stages have a space to explore the stories within them, She is dynamic and lives life BIG! She offers monthly workshops where she guides writers to unlock ideas that can lead to stories down the road. I have been a part of Story Exploratory for almost three years now. I credit Jen for helping me become a more confident writer.

Chris Calcagno is a Pampered Chef Consultant in addition to being a Gifted and Talented Teacher. My friend has such a gift for teaching, but I think another major gift she has is cooking/baking—anything in the culinary world. The part time PC Consultant business is just perfect for her! I feel she will have such opportunities to explore when she retires from the education world. She can teach many of us how to cook in more healthy ways through her experimentation. She can be contacted at ccallcagno89@gmail.com.

Tai-Nina Castaneda has launched her creative business called Uniquely Tai-Nina. She has taken her love of sewing and crafting to create beautiful and unique handmade teacher themed items that you can find in her shop found at: https://uniquelytainina.square.site/ She is combining her teaching sewing skills as she has started sharing “how to” videos and vocabulary that applies to her creative passion.

Donalyn Miller is a former middle school Language Arts and Social Studies teacher who became an author and independent consultant sought out by many. She can be found presenting at countless conferences/conventions and working in school districts who appreciate her work in the area of Independent Reading and the importance of choice. She will have book titles at the drop of a hat. I felt like she spoke to my Reading Teacher’s heart when I read her first book and I knew I wanted to be friends with her. She can be contacted at bookwhisperer.com.

Kim Stewart retired from a career in education and is now onto career number two while enjoying travel adventures as well. She is a top notch realtor because she helps her clients with such a caring manner. It is important to her to make the buying or selling of a home a very personal one. She can be contacted at https://www.jbgoodwin.com/agent/kim-stewart/.

Selene Talamantes is another realtor who is a go-getter. While raising her young family, she is also helping families find their forever homes. She made a tough decision to leave the education field to focus on her business and her precious family. I admire her drive and dedication. She can be contacted at https://www.linkedin.com/in/txrealtorselene/.

Eva Mireles is a reading specialist and the owner of Literacy Simplified Consulting. She is determined not only to help students everyday, but teachers, too! She has an awesome podcast called The Reading Teacher’s Playbook. She also hosts trainings throughout the year and during the summer. I admire her dedication to making Literacy Education enjoyable for all.

I feel so fortunate to witness the great things that all these female entrepreneurs are accomplishing. I look forward to meeting more independent business owners as I an out and about. I ask that you support local, small businesses as much as you can especially if they are female owned! Society keeps moving in the right direction, albeit slowly (sometimes) toward gender equality. Everyone deserves a chance to make their dreams come true. These ladies are certainly getting it done!