Several weeks ago, I had the chance to meet with four out of the five teens who are the central subjects of Nanette Burstein's documentary American Teen (in theaters now). The film follows the five teens through their senior year of high school in 2005 and 2006, and captures a wide range of situations and scenarios that not only give us all a glimpse into what high school is like today, but also what high schoolers are like today. In private moments alone with the camera, many of the teens even reveal some of their deepest concerns and greatest hopes. And two years later, with some of those worries behind them and some of those hopes attained, I was curious what was on their minds now. And so, I asked.

HJ: In the film, you all end up sharing a lot about your dreams and your fears. It's been two years now. Some of those fears have probably passed. You've hopefully reached some of those dreams. What are your fears and dreams now?

Megan: I think that in the movie, my biggest fear is not getting into Notre Dame, and putting all that pressure on me. I feel like I'm back in the same boat. I take MCATs this spring, for Med school. So, I'm definitely stressing about that and kind of relating to me in the movie again. So, that's my new fear, but I'm learning from how I reacted.

Mitch: Stressing out doesn't change the result.

Jake: I'm afraid of flying, that's about it.

Megan: I'm afraid of bridges.

Mitch: I'm afraid of water at night.

HJ: Be careful here, there's a few bridges&ellips; and a little bit of water.

Jake: What are you afraid of?

Colin: I don't have any fears really.

Megan: What about spiders?

Colin: I don't like 'em.

Mitch: On a plane?

Colin: I fear only one thing.

HJ: And that is?

Colin: God.

HJ: Why?

Colin: You're supposed to fear God.

Megan: You're supposed to trust God. In God we trust.

Colin: Okay, if you don't fear God, you're in trouble. The Bible says, I'll point it out in the Bible, it says, you're supposed to fear God.

Megan: I'll point it out on every piece of currency in the United States.

Mitch: You're supposed to fear AND trust God.

Jake: Yeah, there you go.

Mitch: It's the premise of the faith.

From there the group went on to tell me a bit about their new dreams, and what turned out to a be an interesting conversation unexpectedly centered on the number of children each wants to have, and peppered here and there with a career goal or two. But even when I listened to the interview again, I found myself pulled back to their discussion of their fears. Half joking remarks and sarcasm and half straight-up honesty, when their conversation suddenly landed on God (with absolutely no prompting from me), I was surprised.

The exchange was short. None of them revealed very much about their thoughts on God or what role religion plays in their lives. But as brief as it was, it got me thinking. What does it really mean to fear God? What does fearing God look like in our lives? What does it mean to trust Him? And what does that look like? What does it look like to both fear and trust God at the same time? And is the unity of fear and trust in God in fact one of the core foundations of Christian faith?

Hollywood may paint the teens and young adults of today as shallow and mindless, completely unaware of any real concerns in life and utterly out of touch with anything more substantial than the latest Hollywood gossip. But in American Teen and in our chat, Hannah, Megan, Colin, Mitch, and Jake proved to me that today's youth actually do inhabit the same world as the rest of us and deal with many of the same hopes, fears, and questions we all face. In the same way that each teen's story in American Teen left me with more than a few things worth pondering, my short chat with them left me with just as many new things to think about. And a several weeks later, I still am.