Confessions on the 7:45

by Lisa Unger

In this Instagram world, everyone wanted to broadcast filtered versions of their best moments, and bury everything else. All the dull, shameful things, all the flawed, failed ventures and endeavors, hidden. Where did people put those things?

She liked the shadows. That’s where you got to see all the things that other people missed.

Pearl had grown used to being invisible. She didn’t even know until that moment how nice it was to be seen.

Was it a lie to only show the glittering moments? What about the dull, the mundane, the ugly? If they weren’t posted online, were they less real?

The rest of her life was like a cliff she was about to walk off, hoping she had wings.

“They’ll forget about me,” she said. “I barely exist.”