The idea of hopping in a car and taking a road trip across 48 states is all senior creative producing major Gerardo Vazquez can think about for his post-grad plans.

Sure, there is the great landscape of the countryside just outside the driver's window and national forests near every major pitstop, but that's not what Vazquez dreams about. His goal on this trip is to have conversations with others, even if it's at a truck stop in the middle of nowhere, and find common ground with those you would least expect to build a connection with. 

"I think currently in the world, especially in America, we're very divided as human beings and we see the other as the other," Vazquez told The Panther. "But I think we have a lot more in common and we're all struggling through a lot of the same things. We're a lot more similar than we give ourselves credit for."

Since Vazquez has a passion for discovering kinship with any stranger off the street, and a habit of watching YouTube regularly, he was inspired to apply to be on a video series put together through the channel Jubilee. 

According to their YouTube page, Jubilee started in 2010 with the hope to "inspire people to embrace empathy," which is shown most clearly in their Odd One Out series — where people are gathered into a room, all appearing to have a similar experience or opinion, when in reality a "mole" lingers and the group must discover who that outlier is. 

With previous videos like "6 Comedians vs 1 Fake" or "6 Queer People vs 1 Liar," the episode that Vazquez was cast to join was the "6 Men in Therapy vs 1 Fake" that premiered on the channel at the end of March. The video has since gained 295,000 views and over 9,200 likes as of April 9. 

Not only did these videos help Vazquez gain respect for people with opposing views as him, but he also said that the values emphasized in Jubilee's videos aligned with his own, making it the perfect match for him to take part in one of their episodes. 

"Every time I did watch (the videos), I learned something new," Vazquez said. "I was able to understand more about a perspective I wasn't the most in tune with or maybe a perspective that I did villiance, but through watching certain episodes, I was able to humanize that perspective."

Once Vazquez realized he wanted to share his own opinions on these videos, he applied on their website back in November. After an interview with a casting assistant, he found out that he got the job and would be filming toward the end of January. While his vivacious and outgoing personality shines through when talking to Vazquez, he said he was becoming anxious upon the idea of hundreds upon thousands of people hearing his opinions.

"I was a little nervous," Vazquez said. "There's a difference between like, 'I'm gonna do this' versus realizing, 'Oh wow, this is going to be on YouTube and on the internet forever.'"

What calmed his nerves on the day of filming was meeting the six other men featured alongside him in the episode. Even though the objective for the game is to discover who lied about going to therapy, Vazquez said they never wanted anyone to be eliminated because of how meaningful and impactful this conversation was for each man in the room. The filming for the episode only lasted about three hours in Simi Valley, but the friendships were already forming within this group.

The video consists of three rounds where each person describes when they started going to therapy, the reasons why they started going to therapy and the challenges of being a man in therapy. After each round, members privately vote who they think is the odd one out, with the group surprisingly voting out Vazquez after the second round. 

Even though Vazquez was not the "mole," the group bonded on and off camera so much over their experiences with mental health that afterward they created a group text where they all can catch up and ask for advice on anything they need. 

"When the first person was voted out, nobody wanted to vote that person out," Vazquez said. "More than trying to win the game, we just wanted to converse. The people I was playing with were some of the most empathetic and understanding men that I've ever been able to meet, so I'm very grateful for that."

Despite the fact that Vazquez has been going to therapy since he was in middle school, the idea of sharing that information with people all around the world felt unsettling, especially with the stigma surrounding men who seek therapy in our culture. 

"A lot of things we talk about in therapy are things that we're struggling with ourselves and just based on the history of what it means to be a 'man,' we're in a way, since a boy, taught not to show weakness or not to show struggles," Vazquez said. "And then it's ingrained in us. So it was scary to show that I wasn't perfect and that I was struggling, and still struggling. I do find it hard for us to sometimes really own ourselves in public." 

Although the video may not be as eye-catching as Jubilee's other videos like "Liberal Teens vs Conservative Parents" or "6 Criminals vs 1 Undercover Cop," Vazquez said the impact of this video is just as monumental as the others — due to the fact that it highlights the norm of seeking guidance when you need it, even if you think it's braver to stick it out alone. 

"If you need help, it's not weak to show that you need help," Vazquez said. "It's not weak to show that you are struggling. We only know the life that we have lived and our hurt cannot be compared to other people's hurt because our hurt is our own hurt. I hope people can find the support and help in safe spaces they need to work through their hurt, because no one's going to be able to solve it for them."

With a future of hopefully appearing in other videos or making content on his own, Vazquez said that he hopes that audiences who watch his future visual media are energized to spark up a conversation and find complementary characteristics with anyone they come across. You could say it's a little bit like a mental road trip, discovering new connections through vulnerable discussions at random points in life that no one ever thought possible.  

You know what they say… it's not about the destination, but the journey to get there. 

"I'm a strong believer that there's no such thing as a good person or a bad person or a right or wrong side, we are all just people and we're just trying to figure out based on our values what's the best way to improve our humanity," Vazquez said.