First time visiting? Start here. — Bio: About Me — Janay Wright Writer. New Bendite. Canadian Born.medium.com My Most Popular Stories: I Live in the Most Underrated City in the U.S. 4 Steps to Take the Perfect Polaroid Picture Every Time The Pandemic Forced Me to Make the Best Decision of My Life How I Lost Sight of My Writing Voice By Falling Prey to Algorithms Words at An Injustice! Why Don’t White People Know…

A string of lights across the night sky — It was 9:21 p.m on Wednesday, May 5th. My fiancé and I were gazing up at the stars when my eyes caught a glimpse of light moving across the sky behind our house. “Look!” I whispered urgently to Dylan. The long string of lights was undeniably bright, slowly gliding across…

Using original 600 Film by Polaroid — I’ve been capturing my life on polaroid film since December 2017. The year 2020 was no exception. This photo essay captures the ups and downs of 2020, from life pre-pandemic and learning to grapple with our new reality, to making bold life decisions in light of the pandemic. To me…

It’s a mental game — 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…

An open letter to the negative comments — 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. …

I’ve loved writing as long as I’ve known how — 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…

People of color have been telling us for centuries — 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…

This is why I miss you most — 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…

A personalized approach will set you apart from the competition — 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…