Magic for Liars

by Sarah Gailey

I’ve never been good at recognizing what moments are important. What things I should hang on to while I’ve got them.

A long time ago, I got into the habit of trying to recognize important moments when they’re happening. I have a truly terrible memory, and it’s hard for me to hang onto most things, but I still make a special effort to wrestle my brain into a remembering-shape when big stuff is happening. It almost never works. I’ll say to myself “remember this! This is a big deal!” and then a few months later, that memory will have been replaced by a dream I had or a cool dog I saw. That said, I will always remember the moment I first said the name “Ivy Gamble” out loud to my agent over the phone. I was standing in my bosses office (he was at lunch and I had snuck in there to secretly take the call with DongWon). I was looking out the window, watching an Oakland City Bus pull up to a bus stop. When I said her name, everything seemed to stop for a moment, and I thought to myself, “maybe I’ll get to keep this memory.” So far, I’ve been lucky enough to hang on to it. Is there a moment you’ve been able to keep? Is it an important one, or is it something you never thought you’d remember later?