After college, Sundquist is attending graduate school at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He has given up on actively trying to date, owing to the emotional burden of rejection. Since high school, he has been making his career as a motivational speaker—a gig that he uses to fund his ski racing training.

At a middle school leadership conference, he meets a beautiful blond girl with a tiara called Sasha Wright. She is a candidate for the Miss America pageant. She praises Sundquist’s presentation and tells him that he is funny. There is an easy rapport between Sundquist and Sasha, as they have much in common with disliking to dance and being home-schooled, and she gets up early to see him off the next morning. Sundquist takes her number and they plan to hang out when he is next in North Dakota.

Sundquist and Sasha have been talking every day. She asks him about why he no longer wears his prosthesis. He tells her that the prosthesis is too uncomfortable and that he can no longer wear it because of nerve damage. While Sundquist prefers not to talk about his amputation with girls he is attracted to, he has learned from experience that people are naturally curious about what is different.