In Gatesville, a small town tucked in the Texas Hill Country, an even smaller boy and his family struggled with the complex issues of faith, belonging, and love in the midst of tragedy. Diagnosed at 4.5 years old with leukemia and now 30 years old, filmmaker Jared Morgan returns to the 1980s and his hometown on a quest to understand the events that shaped his early life.

Interweaving intimate stories from family, classmates, teachers, nurses, doctors, and church members, Jared gathers the pieces of his past bit by bit. Did people think he was different? How did his cancer affect their lives? With tenderness and an unflinching desire to understand just how much he was transformed by cancer, the first-time documentary director asks the tough questions—and gets some unexpected answers. Along the way he revisits treatment rooms, classrooms, and his childhood home to relive moments painful and joyful, profound and mundane, spiritual and absurd.

A deeply personal portrait, this short documentary is an in-depth look at the impact of cancer not only on patients—but their family and community. It’s through their eyes the filmmaker learns about the town who prayed for him, the family who stayed strong for him, and determination despite the seemingly worst of circumstances. With 25 years hindsight and survival under his belt, only now can Jared uncover what made him grow up so quickly into a BIG little Man.