Assessing Your Peace Portfolio: Be Kind to Unkind People

Before you jump down my throat hear me out. I’ve been scorned way too many times for me to still be a professional optimist and I know this and don’t understand this. It’s not going to make me less chipper though. It will make me wiser. As the only girl amongst my mom’s two boys…

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Equality Games

Let’s stop comparing tragedies. One killing isn’t worse than another killing because a life is still lost and a murder is still unsolved. No one’s pain is worse than the others as we’re comparing the same things across the nation not worrying that legislation is nowhere in sight. We know what’s wrong and what’s right….

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Grounded: How Quitting My Flight Attendant Job Helped Me Soar

I quit being a flight attendant seven years ago. I wasn’t bad at the job but I don’t think the opportunity happened at the right time for me. After all, I showed up at the interview ever so nonchalant. After reading how hard the selection process was I was certain that they would never pick…

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Millennial Mayor Check In

As it’s the last year of my term and it’s been a while since 29-year-old me was sworn in as the youngest mayor in Braddock History. I’ll never forget being whisked into council chambers and being briefed about all things Braddock Affairs. There was an array of conversations all at once. The police department oversaw…

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May Your Coffee Be Strong and Your Patience Be Stronger

With chaos comes clarity or the chaos wasn’t worth it. When the pandemic first started, the days felt like weeks and weeks felt like months. Here we are more than a year in and days seem like seconds, my to-do list grows as the annoying weeds in my backyard that Mother Nature keeps watering. Personally,…

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Two Distant Strangers

Today a cop was charged with manslaughter for killing a black man in broad daylight in front of a crowd. It may be the closest thing to justice we will see as accountability has been far in between. Recently, I watched a Netflix movie titled Two Distant Strangers about a guy who wakes up at…

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Lead By Example: Why I Got Vaccinated

“Get last-minute vaccine appointment,” wasn’t in my Google Calendar yesterday but when I got the call to be in the Southside within an hour, I dropped everything and went. I almost forgot I had added myself to a waitlist that calls people when others cancel their appointments last minute. This keeps doctors from wasting a…

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Don’t Let Past Luggage Sink Your Current Relationship

I love the ship metaphor for relationships. If both parties are working together to keep the ship afloat it’s smooth(ish) sailing (you can’t control the weather). If not, you’re going to sink. It may not be as fast as the Titanic but it’s inevitable. Finishing my first poetry book Return to Sender was the closure…

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