. . . . agreed with everything the speaker was saying. Jesse felt just a glimpse of hope because the message was ironically speaking to the message of perfection and how we as believers are not to engage in religious works. As the Short was ending, Jesse huffed and thought, “Yeah, but that preacher’s crazy, they’re probably living a perfect life in complete freedom, they’re close with God, of course they can talk confidently about their future life with Hope–they’re preachers. But me? I’m just a college kid failing basic Chem again in a campus far from home just because I wanted to prove a point of independence to my parents. What do I have to show for? I’ll never be where that preacher is, no matter what he says…I’m not worthy of claiming so…Forget about it, what else can I watch, how did this even get into my feed? Stupid algorithm.”
After the Youtube short had finished, Jesse tried scrolling down to the next video but to no avail. Jesse tried swiping up and down again to try and get to the next video, but it wasn’t working. In fact, his phone’s wifi went under SOS mode which only angered and frustrated Jesse more. Giving up, Jesse locked the iPhone, tossed it on the bed, sat down at the edge of his bed. With his head down, he cupped his forehead in his hands, he started to cry just a little. Jesse didn’t know exactly why he was crying, he was just overcome with a sense of being overwhelmed. “Why am I always needed all the time? Can’t people just leave me alone? I’m doing too much, it’s like I’m supposed to be perfect about everything I do and I can’t make a mistake. God, why is everything so hard, why can’t anything just be easy. I don’t club, I don’t drink, what more do you want from me? If you were really here with me, you’d actually help me pass my classes so that I don’t bring disgrace to your name anymore but seeing as that’s not happening then just continue to leave me alone. You’re not here….so where are you?” He sighed.
After a few moments, Jesse called out to his Alexa to play some music to quiet his mind, “Alexa, play relaxing piano music.” Alexa responded, “Jesse, here’s your playlist from Spotify. Now playing relaxing piano music.” Letting out a deep breath, he tossed his body back onto his dorm bed, looking up at the ceiling while listening to the piano music. As the music slowly played, he closed his eyes and said to himself, “God, if you’re real, then show up in my life. Please, come.” With the music fading away, Jesse subsequently entered into a dream state. He saw the following three dreams:
In the first dream, Jesse sees a dark background, a cavern of sorts. The place felt familiar, like he’s been in this place before even though it feels like he’s experiencing it for the first time. Jesse finds himself in a dark cave, lit up with fire posts along the walls, almost like an Indiana Jones scene with his outfit reflecting that of an explorer. He walks cautiously through into the cave’s cold stone path, while hearing the echos of the dripping water from inside the cave. As he walks further, he comes to an impasse. There, the path gets narrow, there are no walls, just a narrow bridge connecting from where he is at to the other side. He knows if he falls to either side, he falls into a never ending depth and must try this again. So, he moved forward cautiously, slowly, counting every step on every plank of the bridge not knowing if he would lose his balance or not. Jesse breathes in and out with every movement and finally made it across. Thereafter, he saw a bookshelf full of dusty books that don’t look to have been opened in a while. He reaches out and grabs a red book, as if this is the one he had been looking for all along. Once he grabbed it, he sees the scene disappear, and transitions into another dream.
In this dream, Jesse is in a bright environment. He’s on a sailboat in the ocean at the steering wheel with goggles on him. The waves hit his boat at a normal range and he sees the boat increasing and decreasing with each wave. Jesse feels a sense of calm, as if “as long as I’m on the boat and the waves don’t get rough, I’m good.” Suddenly, the landscape changes to a stormy sky with lightning and the waves become more intense. It’s no longer just a little bit of rocking–the waves are almost causing the boat to capsize on its side. Jesse is holding on tight for his life onto the steering wheel, trying to see through his now fogged goggles. He feels panicked and is actually looking for his parents in the process. “Weren’t they just near me a second ago? Where are they when I need them!” But then he remembers that in this dream, his parents are not near because he is driving the boat to a new place. Jesse remembers this thought, and with the courage to move forward, takes off his goggles, throws them into the ocean, and with a commanding voice says to the sea, “You will not have me! I am moving forward. This boat will not fail me. You can try your best but I will not fall into the ocean!!” Right after he says this, the sun returns, brighter than ever before. Now without his goggles, Jesse could see that the island he was searching for was merely a few feet away in front of him. With the storm gone, Jesse drives up to shore, jumps off the boat, starts anchoring down the boat with the rope, stands up in a “superhero” pose with his fists on his hips, facing towards and looking at his boat. The light slowly disappears, and the dream transitions to another.
In this last dream, Jesse sees three red buckets connected to each other. On the front side of each square bucket, the number “10” is on a paper attached to it, almost like an olympic point card. To the left of these buckets is a gigantic purple scissor in the air. The scissor starts moving and cuts these buckets until there are no pieces left. Jesse then sees his classroom for Computer Science 1101. He feels safe in it, for he’s always loved computers and aspires to be in the tech industry one day. He sees the professor at the head of the classroom, explaining the material, and Jesse feels like he gets it, like its easy for him to be in this class.
Suddenly, an Alexa alarm goes off with a reminder: “Jesse, here is your reminder, you have Chem class in 10 minutes.” Jesse darts his eyes opens, panting his breath, puts his right hand over his eyes, squints, and says, “God, why is it so bright in here. You’d think I’d have a roommate who’d remember to close the windows for when it gets hot from the sun.” Jesse hears familiar footsteps approaching his dorm room. His roommate Jeff opens the door and says, “Hey you coming to chem class? Dude I scored major.” Jesse sits up and looks at Jeff, holding a red notebook binder at the door and asks, “Dude where did you get such an old notebook from, the trashcan?” Jeff responds while holding the notebook in the air, “Yo, there was a senior who gave me his notes from when he was a freshman taking our chem class with Professor Owens, and its got everything laid out like every rule and formula. We’re set!! Oh also, are we still going to that First Gen Club body meeting tonight at 7 or are we going to one of your other clubs cause honestly I just wanna play this new game tonight if you’re down instead.”
Jesse paused and took a deep breath. He looked up at the red notebook again and smirked because he wondered, “what if the red notebook is the same as in the dream?” Jesse then heard his phone ‘ping,’ and woke up to 97 texts messages from the 3 club group chats he was in: First Gen Students Club, BioMed Club, and Frisbee Club. He opened each chat and just removed himself from each one, deleting the chats until only one text message remained on his phone he hadn’t noticed before. The text was actually from his dad, it read: “Hey bud, I hope you’re not stressing yourself out. I felt like God prompted me to text you this morning. Your mom, your sister and brother and I are all proud of you, no matter what you do as long as its good and helps others. Remember, you don’t have to be anything you’re not. You don’t have to be a doctor like you’re brother Sam or take care of the lawn mowing business for me once you graduate, that’s my responsibility. You just go be what God called you to be. We’ll see you in a couple weeks for Thanksgiving. Be safe, oh and text your mother more often, you know how she gets when you don’t call for a while. -Dad.”
Jeff interjected, “Uh earth to Jesse. Dude, whatchu you smiling at? Was it that girl Dana you sit next to at Chem class? Man I knew she had a thing for you haha.” “Nah,” Jesse said, “just some things I needed to cut out. Let’s get some food after class and checkout at that new game you got.” “So no club meeting tonight?” Jeff asked to confirm. “Nah, I didn’t want to be in it anyway. Let’s just go to class before we’re marked absent, come on.” As Jesse was heading out the door, Jeff handed him the notebook of the Chem notes. Jesse held it in his hands, flipped through the notebook and found a sticky note that dropped on the floor. He picked it up, and it read, “Isaiah 41:10: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” He paused, for he had a sense of what to do with the sticky note. Jesse closed his room door, placed the sticky note on the outside front of his dorm room door, smiled to himself and walked away with his roommate Jeff, knowing with a sense of security that everything was going to be O.K.
This story was submitted as part of the Oxford Pilot Phase of the Gen Z Role Models Project.
“. . . . agreed with everything the speaker was saying” (S104) © 2026 by The Gen Z Role Models Project is licensed under CC BY 4.0
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