It was all a dream
I’m frequently asked where the vision of Rooted MKE came from. It was a very slow process of unintentionally manifesting, healing myself and fantasizing about greater when in a place of discontentment.
Around 2013, I returned home to Milwaukee, WI after living in Minneapolis for a couple of years and working at Wells Fargo in business banking. Minnesota Ashley was radiant and blossoming into a corporate baddie (if I do say so myself). I absolutely loved my job and who I was becoming after moving away from my hometown and living on my own in a new, colder land. Minneapolis Ashley was happy, independent, career oriented and thriving. Unfortunately, for reasons I’m still processing my family and I decided that it was safest for me to move back home. The move was not something I was mentally prepared for and I was angry. It crushed my spirit to have to reset my life, Minnesota Ashley was no more. Angry that I was leaving a work environment I loved, a life where I felt validated, the independence of navigating life as a single 20-something, the assurance of knowing that I was safe and could freely explore alone without worry, and unclear of what a future back in my hometown meant for me since I didn’t want to leave.
Needless to say, I was depressed, beating myself up and adorned an invisible crown of pain. I got a job I hated and gave off “pissed to be here” vibes daily at work. I shut down and operated from a space of “handle your adult responsibilities” auto-pilot.
Fast forward, 2014. I’d began teaching with my local public school district simply because the opportunity was presented to me. My first year, I was a 4th grade reading teacher. I loved the idea of my job, though quickly I learned how complex it was to teach. Yet, I was determined. My appreciation for children as thinkers and partners in the learning process allowed me to genuinely view the classroom as a space where my students and I were equals. I learned from my students, and I hope they too learned from me. As part of my job requirements, I returned back to college to get post-bac teaching certification and continued on to get a Masters in Exceptional Education and Literacy Instruction.
While in college, I continued to feel a longing for the zeal and fulfillment I left in Minnesota and hadn’t reclaimed yet. Small bursts of world travel with my partner temporarily solved my problem. While packing for every excursion abroad, I’d pack a notebook to dream. The notebook became my “if the stars ever aligned” place of calm. The notebook paired with a healthy dose of vitamin d and warm salt water allowed me to mourn who I was, while envisioning who I wanted to be. In that notebook I kept coming back to opening a calm, luxury bookstore for kids.
During my final semester of graduate school, while pregnant with my now 3 year old, I decided that I didn’t really want to teach and support students in the traditional classroom. I shared this insane revelation with my team of advisors and they challenged to be think about what supporting black students in the community could look like. I’d began to share with my UWM School of Education family that I wanted to open a bookstore. All of my classmates thought I’d lost my mind but entertained the notion that I wouldn’t be jobless with an exceptional education and reading teaching certification, collecting dust. I didn’t yet truly believe that it was possible to leave the classroom, make money and pay off my mountain of student loans, but Minnesota Ashley was happy pretending. Every once and awhile, I’d pick up my notebook (on vacations and when I was feeling overwhelmed or unclear of my path) and continue building out the perfect future as a stress-relief and grounding practice.
Now we’re in 2021. Like millions of people, the pandemic certainly shifted my values, priorities and outlook on how I wanted to live. I was pregnant again with my now 10-month old, Asherah and my son (Amzai was 2). My notebook had grown to a full business plan with rough financials, a Pinterest board or three, and I was ready to sputter off any excuse to begin maternity leave early. I was truly ready for a significant shift while preparing for a second child. My families plan was for me to shift into a stay at home mom when my daughter was born and I’d tutor on the side to fund my Target addiction.
Asherah joined us earth-side and I enjoyed each slow day, getting to know her and loving her tenderly. Any spare moment I had, I was back at my “if the stars aligned” plans to stimulate my mind and get out of nursing, burping, changing, napping, repeat mode. Late Summer 2021, I went to check out the now home of Rooted MKE on West Vliet Street for a friend. My beloved friend didn’t show for the showing with the realtor so I toured the space and begin to envision Rooted MKE in the space. I called my husband, he gave the greenlight and I signed a lease shortly thereafter.
In the early stages, the first 6 months, I stayed up several nights a week into the early hours of the morning listening to my family sleep peacefully, finalizing business plans details, truly building out financials, searching feverishly for grant opportunities, looking for design inspo and creating the Rooted MKE brand.
I’ll spare you all of the renovation, occupancy and design woes, but it was all worth the pain and tears because here we are today!
Rooted was birthed out of a desire to have more and heal from the loss of who I was and the live I’d lived when leaving the hometown nest. Rooted MKE planning kept me encouraged, comforted and whole. I am grateful for the vision and happy to see that it wasn’t impossible, chipping at it a little at a time helped bring the stars closer to my fingertips.