You’ll eventually forget the score of the championship game. You probably won’t forget the bus ride home.

Official events get stored as facts and lose their detail fast. What stays vivid is the unofficial part around them, the ride, the noise, who sat where, because that is where you were relaxed enough to actually be present. Your memory keeps the atmosphere and throws out the result.

On the next trip home from something, stay off your phone and in the conversation. That stretch is where the memory is actually being made.