In a weak-mayor system, some municipal mayors get to oversee a police department. The first thing that I remember after being sworn in was being whisked away and handed two internal police investigations. I was curious, energized, ready to learn, and ready to lead. The mayor paid less than $100 a month, so my day…
Author: Chardaé Jones
Why Not You?
Audacity “The quality or state of being audacious: such as a : intrepid boldness knights admired for their audacity.” I’ve had about four or five careers (I’ve stopped counting), and I just embrace the art of side quest. Why not step out of your comfort zone? Why not learn something new? If you fail, it…
Confessions of an Ex-Millennial Mayor
I imagine 18-year-old me, 28-year-old me, and the me today sitting at a bar. They’d all get along kee-keeing with one another. They’d converse about talking the crying customer out of the plane bathroom before take off, or telling the one man, “I’m as hot and chocolate as he was going to get,” because we…
On: Millennial Adaptability, Authenticity, and Publishing My 4th Book, Black Girl, Blue Skies
Just chasing authenticity and imperfection in a world full of perfectly curated artificial intelligence. You’ll never have it all figured out, and as soon as you figure that out, life doesn’t get easier, but it absolutely becomes less chaotic by far. Controlling everything like a game of The Sims 4 is impossible. If I weren’t…
37 in Less Than 7 Days: Flexibility is a Flex
I will be 37 in 7 days. What am I learning? Mostly, I’ll never have it all figured out. After briefly being a flight attendant, my 9-year career in tech came to a pause. The position got eliminated, so I leaned heavily into pivoting. I will continue to lean into pivoting my entire life as…
Why Would I Try to Sell People Anything When Capitalism is Crumbling?
Over and over again, TikTok reminds me that I’m eligible for its monetization programs like TikTok Seller, TikTok Live, and whatever TikTok Service is. But there’s absolutely no way that I, in good conscience, could or would sell anyone anything. Sales, even if we weren’t in an apocalyptic-like hellscape full of fascism and oligarchy, has…
The Dream Should Be Community
What does it mean to dream? What is your dream? What would it feel like if you woke up and your dream came true? All lighthearted questions, but they all pulled something out of me. Last week, I went to a Dreamers Event, and it was amazing to just be present and sit still. Putting…
We Are All Exhausted
We are all exhausted right now, but we show up with as much as we can every day. One hundred percent looks different to the same person each day, and we just do our best and try again tomorrow. Times in this political climate (which some of us predicted if we got there) are hard…
Radical Isn’t What You Think It Is
Radical has a negative connotation to it nowadays, but it’s not radical to want equal rights, believe that my tax money should ensure me at the very least, clean air, water, access to healthy food, adequate housing, and a bridge that won’t collapse while I’m on it. Not one working or retired person should starve…
Capitalism Killed the American Dream
Once upon a time, in an American neighborhood, you could buy a house, work through college to pay your tuition with zero student loan debt, and have a child without feeling as if you would never financially recover. The credit score wasn’t even created until 1989. It wasn’t until 1978 that federal student loans were…