My 2 days with Danny Roberts

After reading Matt's post on Danny Roberts I needed to share my Danny story. I was the assistant programming chair for my small school called Marywood located in Scranton, PA. The head of programming was having a "crisis" of some kind and no one else on the board wanted to help plan the upcoming years events during our retreat for SGA. So, with the power, I decided to book Danny Roberts from the Real World New Orleans.

I was able to get him the weekend we wanted him and had my own countdown running in the back of my head.

The booking company called me a week before the event in my dorm room. The conversation went something like this:

Booking Company: Danny will be flying into Scranton, here is his phone number to contact him..

Me: his phone number?

Booking Company: Yes, he would like to talk to you about the arrangements.

Now, I was already excited at the chance to meet him, but getting his phone number made me smile ALL DAY! The time came, I called and talked to him. He had just got back to his apartment from shooting one of the challenges he was on. I gave him the info and told him I was really looking forward to meeting him in person. I was such a happy closet case. haha

Anyway, the day came. I got into my 1994 Wrangler and picked him up from the airport. He came walking out of the terminal, I greeted him and he jumped in my car. I was like my 13 year old sister meeting Nick Carter in the Backstreet boy heyday. We went to the hotel, checked him in and he wanted to go to the mall. I decided that in the jeep was the perfect time to tell him how much of an inspiration he was and how I wanted to start coming out... blah blah blah. He was AMAZING! We talked the entire car ride to the mall. He was telling me about when he came out and that I needed to stay strong and know that my friends will still love me (and they do)

We walk into the mall and here I am, walking around the mall with a guy who was on one of the BIGGEST TV shows for college students. We walked into an Abercrombie and started shopping. I told him how I have no sense of style and can't dress myself at all. (I have got better) so we decided to pick out outfits for that night when he would be speaking. His cell phone rang, it was Paul. After he hung up and went to the check out the guy behind the counter who went to my school and was on a sports team freaked out a little bit (in a good way)

Dude: Hey, you're Danny from The Real World right.

Danny: yeah

Dude: You are my favorite on the show.

(Dude sees me behind him and tones down his excitement... I will get to Dude later)

Later on that night, Dude is there to see Danny speak. As well as this guy Mike who I was hooking up with at the time. Mike lived across the hall from me and is a good looking guy. Mike and I were in the closet but basically dating.

That night, we go out to a bar in Scranton and Danny and the Dude start talking at the bar. I was Danny's DD that night and had an awesome time.

If I were to bump into Danny again he would not remember me at all. Back in the day, he was the most requested Real Worlder on the speaking circuit. From there, Danny gave me the foundation to start coming out and be who I really was. I ended up transferring at the end of that semester to my school in CT called Quinnipiac and started the coming out process all over again to my new friends and fraternity brothers. I kept a picture of Danny on my desk to remind me to stay strong and it definitely helped.

There is my Danny story. Anyone else have a good story with Danny or another Gay Real Worlder? E-mail them to me!