Under The Radar: A Redshirt Diary

Good News Travels Fast

March 13, 2022

Having had a VERY good time last night in Downtown Austin, the Next Gens approached today with a high bit of lethargy. As there was not much interesting on the schedule at SXSW, it was decided that binging on college basketball and the NCAA Selection Shows would be the order of the day. After constructing a shopping list for food and other things they wanted, Rachel sent an order to Shipt to shop at a local Target and deliver the goods to their suite.

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As the week's current episode of "American Idol" was on in the background, the Next Gens got real with each other about their current love lives.

Sabrina: Dana, Sarah, the two of you talked about how your persons play such an important role in helping with your mental health and the demands that come with what you've accomplished. I'm looking for that, and I'm not sure where I can find it without ending up with a bad match, someone who will either ride my coattails or be so up in my peace that I can't do my job. Help?

Sarah: There is something to be said for having a boyfriend or girlfriend who IS a little bit star-struck with you, but it has to be in the right way. Take Marc. Rachel and Dana got the short version of our first meeting when they organized an intervention concerning my feelings for him and lack of action in doing something about them. He lives on the floor below me in JMU's upperclassmen and graduate apartment complex and was being obnoxiously noisy one afternoon, messing with my getting a tan on the balcony of my apartment. I go down to confront him and he's, well, star-struck. I inquired about the noise, we talked a little, and the "spark" sort of started there, as his interest in women's sports, the laundry list of my accomplishments he referenced, and his calling me a goddess were sort of cute and not creepy. Took a few weeks to finally get both of us to the point where we acted upon our attraction to and interest in one another.

Dana: I don't know if I would have gravitated beyond my on-court chemistry with Sydney if she wasn't just a slight bit crazy about me. All the cute girl friend things we'd do, with and without Grace, Dani, and, later on, Barnesy, they hit me in a way that someone outside the circle doing them likely wouldn't.

Rachel: I look in the mirror and all the things Haley was describing that make me the next generation of softball player, I find almost repudiating, as I mentioned yesterday in response to a question. My chunk, my splotches, my lack of height compared to the three of you. Sorry to be jealous, Sarah, but where is MY Marc?!

Sabrina wrapped an arm around Rachel in comfort while the other two attempted to answer her question.

Sarah: I'm going to tell you the same thing you told me a few months ago. You are a fantastic woman, someone any guy or gal on the planet would be lucky to have in their life. Reach out beyond the bubble back home, where you can be just Rachel and not all that you've accomplished in the past five years or so.

Dana: I think you're being way too hard on yourself. None of us around you are perfect, and neither are my bestie Dani and her girlfriend. Maddy's got the same kind of freckle issue you describe, Dani is built but squat despite being 6'4", and yet when it came time for them to go out in the marketplace searching for love, they found each other as all the knockdowns and drags they'd given to themselves about not being good enough or pretty enough or outgoing enough were wiped out by having built a seven, eight-year friendship that allowed each of them to accept the other's glowing opinion. You need THAT, a person with whom you're comfortable enough to bare all the foibles and know you're loved and adored beyond what you might think you deserve.

Sarah: THAT'S what separates Marc from 99.999% of the guys who are either in the athletic bubble or hang around the edges of it. He's not afraid of telling me over and over that he loves me, that he finds me attractive, along with a few other things I'm not sure Sabrina's delicate ears should hear, and that he wants to be my one-and-only, no takebacks or doubts allowed.