“‘Always?’ I asked. Sitting next to him in the dark made me lose all the confidence and eloquence I’d so carefully curated. I didn’t quite know how to say that here, looking at the secular stained glass, I was suddenly back in a garden where they were recoloring the tiles on tombs, that the empty plaza reminded me of wide roads on a blistering hot day. I wanted to tell him that every time I am in a place I love there are moments when memory takes over, moments that feel like being reborn. I didn’t say it. Not because I thought he wouldn’t understand, but because I knew he would.”
The Fires in Our Dreams
When two young economists return to their university campus after years away, they have to reckon with their pasts and possible futures.
Siobhan Siu Bai McDonough is a policy journalist. In her writing, she explores Asian American identity, restlessness, religion, and young people muddling through life.