Life Lessons in Paris, part 2

“Miles just walked by! He’s in a hurry so he’s probably watching somewhere,” Ethan texted. 

It was Sunday, and Andrew and I were watching the men’s bronze medal match in the stadium. Ethan was laying down on the grass outside the stadium, as he had woken up in the middle of the night with a stomach bug. He also hadn’t eaten or drank anything all morning, since he had been unable to keep anything down since the previous night’s ill-fated dinner. I was impressed he even bothered going to the tournament, and was hoping he’d feel better after getting some rest.

I showed Andrew the text, and he responded, “Oh cool! I’ll look for him after this match.”

Miles Partain and Andy Benesh are the #1 American men’s beach volleyball team, and will probably represent USA at the Paris Olympics next year. We had watched them get eliminated in a Saturday morning match, so didn’t expect to see either of them on the tournament’s final day. After their Saturday setback, we tried to go talk to them, and were able to catch Miles on his way out.

“Are you guys studying abroad?” Miles asked as we got closer. His question was directed at Ethan and Andrew, who were unmistakably American with their AVP volleyballs.

“Yeah, in Rome,” Ethan answered.

“What year are you?” Miles asked.

“It’s our second year,” Ethan replied.

“Oh that’s early, cool,” Miles was definitely more engaging than I expected after losing a match.

“Could you autograph our volleyballs?” Andrew asked.

Miles obliged, and I asked, “Can we get a selfie too?” A year ago I had struggled to turn on my camera from the lock screen when I got a selfie with him, but there was no struggle this time; I had practiced for this moment.

Back on stadium court a day later, Andrew was about to give up looking for Miles when he spotted him in an upper corner section not far from us. “Oh he’s up there!” Andrew said. “I couldn’t find him in the lower section.”

Miles was sitting with his family, and Andrew was contemplating whether he should approach and ask Miles to pepper with him (pepper = pass a volleyball back and forth between 2 people). Ethan and Andrew were telling me the day before how they’re planning to get pepper videos in front of various landmarks throughout Europe during their time abroad this quarter. They were also wondering whether they could get a player to pepper with them, and Andrew had laughed, “That’d be the most stressful pepper of my life.”

Now that it was a real possibility, the stress was whether it’d be okay to bother Miles for such a trivial matter while he was spending time with his family.

“What are you going to say to him?” I asked Andrew, encouraging him to figure out what he was going to say before we went up to him.

After a brief pause, Andrew said, “Oh hey Miles, my friend and I are doing these pepper videos while we’re studying abroad, and I was wondering if I could get a peppering video with you?”

“Sounds like you’re ready,” I said. 

Approaching Miles, Andrew made his pitch, and Miles agreed. “Sure,” he said, and peppered with Andrew as I recorded the moment.

Even though I wasn’t in the video I was pretty excited for Andrew, and as we walked back to our seats Andrew said, laughing, “That was the worst pepper ever.”

“I’m going to send the video to Ethan,” I told Andrew.

He laughed again, “Ethan’s going to be pissed.”

Sure enough, Ethan’s instant reaction was, “I’m so pissed,” followed by, “Is he still there?”

To be honest I felt bad that Ethan wasn’t there when we first approached Miles, but I also didn’t want to bug him when he was resting. Ethan rejoined us a bit later at the stadium, feeling somewhat better.

“Sorry we didn’t check in with you before we got the video,” I said.

“Oh it’s okay,” Ethan said. “I’m going to get the pepper video with him too.” I could see that Ethan was just determined, not pissed.

I was torn because approaching Miles for a second time while he was with his family felt a bit cringey, but I also didn’t want to deprive Ethan of a potentially cool Instagram (and real life) story.

Ethan turned to me during a break in the match and said, “This is probably the best time to go?”

I nodded, bracing myself for potential awkwardness. “Yeah, ok, let’s go.” As we got up from our seats and headed towards Miles, I could sense him looking our way. He probably knows what’s coming, I thought.

Well, as it turned out, I needn’t have been worried, as Miles didn’t hesitate to pepper with Ethan when asked.

Returning to our seats, Ethan said, “Yeah, he didn’t care…there aren’t a lot of American fans here.” I agreed, relieved that it had all worked out. As if to confirm that, we ran into Miles and spoke to him a couple more times as we were leaving the venue, and he was totally chill. 

In Part 1, I wrote that sometimes cool things happen when we embrace the cringe and step of our comfort zone. I said as much to Andrew after he got his pepper video, that this weekend was a life lesson in what could happen after pushing past his initial discomfort. What I didn’t realize was that it was a lesson I needed to (re)learn, too.