Better World With Design

In this deeply personal episode, I share "Wendy's Troubles," a story drawn from journal entries made over thirty years ago in Northern Ireland. It's about being young and having no answers—not for yourself, not for the people who call you at two in the morning seeking guidance you don't possess.

The protagonist embodies the expected faith while also feeling honest uncertainty. He's preparing for a mission while secretly wondering if he believes any of it. Through late-night phone calls with Wendy, a young woman struggling with her own doubts and her feelings for Grace, he discovers that listening without pretending to have answers might be more valuable than bearing testimony with false certainty.

This story is part of a fifteen-story series exploring coming of age in Belfast in the 1990s—a place where religious identity intersected with sectarian divisions, where every choice carried weight, and where young people navigated between who they were supposed to be and who they actually were. The people transformed, the places reimagined, but the love and respect for everyone in these stories has remained constant through the decades.