I didn't learn how to wear contact lenses until I was 23 years old.

I always hated touching my eyes. I would flinch when anything came remotely close to them. Whether it was rain falling from the sky or dust, nothing was getting in there.

Conversely, pulling my eyelids wide apart and trying to stick something in them felt wholely unnatural.

But I was dead set on wearing contact lenses, so I persevered.

The Optometrist’s Office

I remember the day I went to the optometrist’s office to learn how to put the contact lenses in for the very first time.

I was nervous…

I was struggling to come up with story ideas. Nothing seemed quite right.

And then I thought about how grateful I was to live in Bend. Since relocating here eight months ago, I have captured interesting digital and Polaroid photographs from my recent adventures around the city and beyond, which I knew would work well in an article.

So I sat down and I penned, “I Live in the Most Underrated City in the U.S.”

And when I was finished, I figured that it was fine. While it wasn’t the best article I have ever written, I felt that I…

At six years old, I started journaling, and after twenty-one years, I haven’t stopped. Over the years, I wrote down everything I didn’t know how to process.

In second grade, we were given a blank sheet of loose leaf and time alone with our thoughts. We were told to make up a story. I loved that I was free to write about anything.

I penned short stories I was proud of and kept them for years. I think they might still be in a box at my parent’s house.

In fifth grade, my young adult books were littered with post-it…

When my fiancé and I made the decision to move to Bend, Oregon last August, we had never visited the city before.

In pre-pandemic 2020, we visited Vancouver, Canada, Bellingham, Washington, and Portland, Oregon with the intention of moving to one of the three cities.

We landed on Portland, and for the next six months, that was where I imagined our new home. It was located in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest, a creative and bustling city of 2.5 million with the lovely Cannon Beach only an hour and a half drive from the city center.

Then the pandemic hit and…

The fact that the murder of George Floyd took place after we had been grappling with the dystopian reality of living in a pandemic for a little over two months is important.

Tensions were running high. People were stressed, anxious, and depressed.

During a time when the white majority was not excluded from feeling afraid and unsafe, we finally stopped and noticed. A black man had been murdered on the street.

Had there not been a pandemic, we likely would not have noticed.

Countless people of color have lost their lives at the hands of the police and it has…

Garfunkel,

The very first time I met you, all eighty pounds of you barreled into my stomach.

You were excited to meet me. I was a little less thrilled.

You left the outline of a brown paw print on my shirt.

From that point on, my now-fiancé’s parents repeatedly told you to stay “down.” And after I while, you learned not to jump up on me.

At the time, you were living at their house. My fiancé’s lease didn’t allow dogs, so we drove 45 minutes of highways and winding, mountain roads often to visit you.

Once we were living…

Last week, I accepted a position after a three-month-long job search. Over those three long months, I even snagged two interviews for jobs for which I had no prior experience.

As an applicant with almost the entirety of my experience in non-profit administration, I was somehow invited to interview for both a Grant Writer and a Graphic Design position.

Unfortunately, that was exactly where the hiring process ended for me for those two jobs. Thus, I attribute my success on the job hunt to my ability to write convincing cover letters, (rather than my interview skills).

Spoiler alert, it’s a…

I decided to give TikTok another chance.

Once I pushed past the initial overwhelm of synchronized dances and constant stimulation that left me drained after only 20 minutes, I discovered some captivating content. And like any other social media app, the more time I spent on it, the more content that popped up tailored to my personal interests.

The majority of TikTok users are Gen Zers, so naturally, the majority of the videos I saw at first were created by high school students. …