“…felt her eyes widen. The person spoke quietly but emphatically, Bible in one hand, air in the other as she gestured to punctuate her phrases. She wasn’t dressed like the religious leaders Jesse had seen before. Just jeans, a striped shirt, and long dreadlocks.
She wasn’t speaking like you’d expect a religious leader to, either. In fact, she was describing…driving? A camping trip. A camping trip in a converted van, which she’d driven in the wee small hours of the morning to park at an abandoned beach. The picture she painted with her words was captivating. Jesse leaned back into her throw pillows and turned up the volume.
The speaker described stepping out of the van, aching after a long day of driving, and looking up at the night sky. She spoke of endless stars scattered across the canvas of sky. A huge full moon that seemed to almost touch the sea. The quiet, gentle lapping of midsummer waves on a night-darkened shore. And she said that for the first time in years, she’d felt peace. Stillness. And a smallness that could only come from knowing how tiny you are in the grandness of sky and sea and time.
Jesse bit her lip. She didn’t like the thought of being small. Out-of-control. Even…forgettable.
But then the speaker dropped her voice and leaned forward in her chair. She clutched her Bible to her chest. “”But there’s beauty in the smallness,”” she said, quieter than anything she’d said before.
And Jesse felt her breath catch.”
This story was submitted as part of the Oxford Pilot Phase of the Gen Z Role Models Project.
“…felt her eyes widen.” (S103) © 2026 by The Gen Z Role Models Project is licensed under CC BY 4.0
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