focus on—a distraction—which I desperately needed in my life at that time. It certainly wasn’t anything I had a burning desire to do. To be totally honest, I had barely even seen the show. And I had always thought it was a little staged.
Falling in love on TV? Really? With all those cameras?
I just didn’t buy it.
Anyhow, I filled out the questionnaire. The questions were pretty basic:
Where are you from?
Who are your friends?
What do you like to do?
And, of course, they wanted to know all about my romantic life. When I got to the questions about my love life and past relationships, I decided to leave out Tye. I suppose it was probably just another form of denial.
If I leave it off the application, no one will ever know what really happened . . .
I filled it all out and sent everything back in, along with a couple of photos, which were required. I wasn’t sure how long the whole process would take, since there wasn’t a time line included in the packet. So after I mailed the application, I kind of forgot all about it and continued on with my life.
A few weeks later, I received another envelope in the mail from The Bachelor. I’d made it to the next round. How, I have absolutely no idea. Next up was to submit a video of myself answering a whole slew of new questions.
I almost stopped right there. It was too much work. I didn’t have a video camera. And I didn’t really care enough to deal with all of this. Kristen and I were about to leave on a big, fun trip we had planned to Mexico with a couple of friends, even though I was completely broke at the time—emotionally and financially.
I had filled Kristen in on what was happening throughout the audition process and had kept her updated on each new round that I had made it through. I told her about the video, and how I didn’t really want to do it. I was a little embarrassed and not really sure I was 100 percent interested. She somehow convinced me to just do it.
We literally shot the video the morning we left for Mexico. And we had to go to my parents’ house to use their video camera. I laugh today when I see clips of that video on YouTube, because it’s so clear that I was already dressed for a Mexican vacation! It’s a terrible interview, really, because we were in such a rush, and I wasn’t that invested in the whole process. The only thing I remember saying was in answer to a question about how my relationships tended to end.
That was easy.
“I’m always the dumpee,” I said. “And I don’t understand why. I believe in love. I’ve got a tattoo on my back that says True Love, because I’m a firm believer. I just haven’t found it.”
I shipped off the video, left for Mexico, and didn’t think twice about it. Surely they wouldn’t be interested in the quick, sloppy interview I’d submitted. It was fun to play the “what if?” game,but I was still planning to move on with my life, as if there was no possibility that anything would happen with the show.
Until, that is, the producers contacted me to say that they wanted to meet me in person.
What?!? How did I actually make it to the next round?
Again, I couldn’t understand how, or why, they still wanted to meet with me. Looking back, maybe they saw how cracked and fragile I was at the time—even though I’d tried my best to mask my heartbreak. I suppose I’ll never know for sure.
It was now Labor Day weekend. I was vacationing with my family on an island off the coast of Florida. It was a Rycroft family tradition; we’d gone there every summer for the past twenty-four years. I remember this trip being particularly uncomfortable for me. My younger brother, Christopher, had brought along his girlfriend, which was great, except that there I was, single and auditioning for a TV dating show, which my parents had made clear they really didn’t want me to do. Not exactly the impression I wanted to make as an older sibling.
There were only two days I could choose to fly
Falling in love on TV? Really? With all those cameras?
I just didn’t buy it.
Anyhow, I filled out the questionnaire. The questions were pretty basic:
Where are you from?
Who are your friends?
What do you like to do?
And, of course, they wanted to know all about my romantic life. When I got to the questions about my love life and past relationships, I decided to leave out Tye. I suppose it was probably just another form of denial.
If I leave it off the application, no one will ever know what really happened . . .
I filled it all out and sent everything back in, along with a couple of photos, which were required. I wasn’t sure how long the whole process would take, since there wasn’t a time line included in the packet. So after I mailed the application, I kind of forgot all about it and continued on with my life.
A few weeks later, I received another envelope in the mail from The Bachelor. I’d made it to the next round. How, I have absolutely no idea. Next up was to submit a video of myself answering a whole slew of new questions.
I almost stopped right there. It was too much work. I didn’t have a video camera. And I didn’t really care enough to deal with all of this. Kristen and I were about to leave on a big, fun trip we had planned to Mexico with a couple of friends, even though I was completely broke at the time—emotionally and financially.
I had filled Kristen in on what was happening throughout the audition process and had kept her updated on each new round that I had made it through. I told her about the video, and how I didn’t really want to do it. I was a little embarrassed and not really sure I was 100 percent interested. She somehow convinced me to just do it.
We literally shot the video the morning we left for Mexico. And we had to go to my parents’ house to use their video camera. I laugh today when I see clips of that video on YouTube, because it’s so clear that I was already dressed for a Mexican vacation! It’s a terrible interview, really, because we were in such a rush, and I wasn’t that invested in the whole process. The only thing I remember saying was in answer to a question about how my relationships tended to end.
That was easy.
“I’m always the dumpee,” I said. “And I don’t understand why. I believe in love. I’ve got a tattoo on my back that says True Love, because I’m a firm believer. I just haven’t found it.”
I shipped off the video, left for Mexico, and didn’t think twice about it. Surely they wouldn’t be interested in the quick, sloppy interview I’d submitted. It was fun to play the “what if?” game,but I was still planning to move on with my life, as if there was no possibility that anything would happen with the show.
Until, that is, the producers contacted me to say that they wanted to meet me in person.
What?!? How did I actually make it to the next round?
Again, I couldn’t understand how, or why, they still wanted to meet with me. Looking back, maybe they saw how cracked and fragile I was at the time—even though I’d tried my best to mask my heartbreak. I suppose I’ll never know for sure.
It was now Labor Day weekend. I was vacationing with my family on an island off the coast of Florida. It was a Rycroft family tradition; we’d gone there every summer for the past twenty-four years. I remember this trip being particularly uncomfortable for me. My younger brother, Christopher, had brought along his girlfriend, which was great, except that there I was, single and auditioning for a TV dating show, which my parents had made clear they really didn’t want me to do. Not exactly the impression I wanted to make as an older sibling.
There were only two days I could choose to fly
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