32 unread messages. Lara put down the phone, frustrated. How would she get through the next few days? Looking for answers, or distraction, she picked up the phone and started watching videos. One video caught Lara’s eye. A remarkable individual, talking about something religious or spiritual. She couldn’t quite make it out, but she was interested and found something impressive, maybe admirable, about the person. So, she continued watching and tried to decipher what the person was saying. He seemed to be around 18 years old, just a few years older than Lara herself, and he was speaking with a confidence and conviction that Lara could only dream of having.
“Do you feel lost and unsure in your life? Do you feel like you’re on the wrong path? I used to feel that way too, but then I found God and realised what I’d been doing wrong. You can turn your life around and become who you’re meant to be by building your connection with Him.”
Lara felt as though he was speaking directly to her, she had been struggling so much recently, things just didn’t feel right and she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. Could it be that she was missing God in her life? She had not been raised particularly religiously but a lot of her friends were Christian, and they did seem to be more stable than she was. If she was honest with herself, she was a bit of a mess at the moment. She had been getting into more and more fights with her girlfriend, Allison, the latest of which had resulted in her sending a rather panicked string of 32 messages to her, insisting they could work things out. But Allison hadn’t read them for over a day.
She tapped on the man’s account, intrigued that maybe he knew how to get her out of the tangled mess of her life. She tapped through more and more videos of his, eager to see what he had to say, he seemed so happy and self assured and he credited it all to his relationship with God. Lara would give anything to feel like that. She became increasingly enthralled by what he was saying, maybe he was right and God was what she was missing, he sure sounded convincing. But the next video stopped her in her tracks.
“Feeling unhappy in your life is a sign that you’ve strayed from God, if you come back to Him, you’ll be able to feel whole again. When I was younger, I strayed from God and had a relationship with another guy. I felt like I was in love, but really I was being separated from God’s love. If you feel like you’re in this position, you can get out. Get back on the right path and come back to God”
Lara was taken aback, she didn’t know what to make of it. She couldn’t believe that her relationship with Allison was something wrong, something that brought her further from God and happiness, she loved her. But his testimony felt so familiar to her, he said he had been struggling and feeling lost, and rejecting that part of himself made him into the contented man he was today. Lara felt so seen by him, she was feeling just like that right now and she wanted to get better just like him, he seemed so inspiring. She was spiralling.
Could her relationship with Allison be wrong? Was that why she felt so lost? Had she strayed from God? Did she need to get rid of that part of herself to find happiness? But she was happy with Allison, wasn’t she? Or was she? Maybe he was right. He was so convincing. Maybe there was something wrong with her. Maybe she had strayed from God, maybe breaking up with Allison would solve everything, it worked for him, didn’t it? He was everything Lara wanted to be, if he said she was on the wrong path, maybe she should listen to him. She just wanted to be happy like he was.
She opened up her texts to send a 33rd message to Allison. Maybe they couldn’t work things out after all. Maybe they shouldn’t. That would fix everything, wouldn’t it? He said that it would.
This story was submitted as part of the King’s Study Phase of the Gen Z Role Models Project. Added April 2026.
“and tried to decipher what the person was saying.” (S198) © 2026 by The Gen Z Role Models Project is licensed under CC BY 4.0
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