Jaycee Woods

I had a new story idea. The initial kernel: a boy excels at sports instead of school but genetically he will never have the stature to continue his sports dominance because all his peers will outgrow him. The problem is how can his life be guided in a way that avoids the risk of escaping into substance abuse when he becomes a teen who is blocked from the thrill of achievement in sports and school.

Brainstorming with Copilot none of the alternative sports for his size had the allure of football, basketball, or baseball. Most interesting options were martial arts, wrestling, and boxing for development as a teen. Those potentially leading to MMA with its weight classes. I didn’t like that option because it was too feast or famine. Alternative realistic path, military as a tanker or submariner; it speaks to the values that the kid connects to in sports.

The story? A dialogue with his uncle, who has similar genetic constraints and the wisdom of experience plus opportunities missed. Kid is frustrated after practice as his former role as the team’s superstar is diminishing. As a coming of age story, it isn’t a lesson of “you can be anything you can dream” but that “you can be all that you can be.” The uncle opens the boys eyes to an adult future and actively preparing for it.

The uncle is just a regular single guy with a job like mechanic, HVAC, or plumber. A solid steady man who isn’t popular with the ladies because he is short without a stack of cash to stand upon. Meanwhile he took in his single mom sister & his nephew after cutbacks reduced her govt benefits. He is the type of man who is capable of supporting a family emotionally and financially but is invisible to single women. Without a child, he puts his paternal impulses into mentoring his nephew.

One of the ideas pushing the military career as an option for the boy is overseas deployment where he might meet a woman whose high standards are not the US-standard, a 6 foot gigachad at minimum so that other women will be impressed by her catch.