He was twenty nine, but his face looked so much older. His eyes, once bright, seemed to be lost and the corners of his mouth were always creating a sarcastic rictus. He was bored, tired, without any sense of pride and he couldn’t remember any accomplishment at all. His name was Jake.

Jake was working every day, spending hours at the dry cleaner, pressing clothes and sorting through pockets. One evening, while emptying a customer’s jacket, he discovered a small, round, metallic object. Curious, he pulled it out: a brass compass, its glass was cracked but it was still shining in the light.

Intrigued, Jake wiped it clean, noticing an inscription on the back:

“It’s time to go home”

He slipped it into his pocket, feeling an unusual warmth surrounding the object

That evening, driven by a sense of adventure, (a glimpse of hope, for the first time in his adult life)he decided to follow the compass. It pointed him through the narrow streets of his town, guiding him to a park he remembered since childhood. There, beneath an old tree, he stumbled upon a hidden journal buried through the roots.

As he opened its pages, memories of his childhood came back into his mind, so vivid, just like the dreams he had forgotten. A tear rolled down his cheek, heart racing as he rediscovered a broken page.

On that page, a scared little boy, more than twenty years ago wrote with big blue letters:

WHEN I GROW OLD, I WILL SAVE THE WORLD!