When Trey Weatherholtz looks around MTV’s “The Challenge: Battle of the Seasons,” reality show, there are not too many people he trusts. He’s weary of the fake friendships, the stab-in-the-back smiles and he keeps his guard up at all times. When you’re on a show competing with 27 other contestants for a $350,000 first place cash prize, it would be pretty difficult for anyone to trust the man or woman next door, even if they are teammates.
Trey didn’t just develop this thinking because of the show and all the materialistic things that come with it. His mindset about people was shaped a long time ago. His relationship with his father was strained growing up. His mother and stepfather’s relationship is rocky. Family members have come and gone, some to incarceration, others to the home calling of Mother Nature.
Family dysfunction became something Trey has become accustomed to since he was a youth.
When he competes on “The Challenge: Battle of the Seasons” reality show, the personal knowledge of what can happen within his TV family is no different than what transpired years ago when he was growing up.
Trey has his friends. He also knows his enemies on the show. Sometimes he has a problem deciphering if a genuine conversation with one of the cast members on the show is really an opening to go backdoor on him. The atmosphere is tense with one set of drama activities hopping from one place to another. There are times Trey decides to hang out alone out of fear that someone who sends him an inviting smile might be plotting his demise off the show.
Trey believes the less he trusts, the better the odds that he will come out on top as the show’s winner.
“There are certain people that I will open up to,” Trey told News4usonline.com. “Laura is the only person I can buy in. I don’t know if I can one hundred percent trust her because, again, I don’t know if I can one hundred percent trust anyone in my life. To be quite frank, I don’t think I trust Laura one hundred percent. When you say one hundred percent-that means that you are giving all of your soul to someone. I don’t know if I am still in a place in my life where I will do that for anyone, including my own family.”
While he is hesitant to go the full mile in trusting her completely, Trey did say that he has gotten to a point where he can sit down and open up to Laura Lee Waller, his Team St. Thomas partner. Trey he feels he can let in Laura to see his real side at times to let her know where he’s coming from. Trey and Laura got to know each other during the “Real World” reality show, and are now teammates on “The Challenge: Battle of the Season.”
The two have been able to connect through the oddity of their childhoods. Laura has been able to share with Trey that she is an adopted child. Trey, of course, shared with Laura about his troubled relationship with his father. Trey says the he and Laura have a common bond, which should have brought them a lot closer, but they had a tiff on the Real World and haven’t really gotten over it.
Trey said he regrets that happening because he feels that he and Laura have a real good connection between each other.
“There are people I can confide in, there are a lot of people I open up to, and I can say that I trust them more than others,” Trey said. “Laura is somebody that I found. Once you hear the fact that she was adopted, she started opening up to me a little bit about her past and it made me feel comfortable to do the same. If I feel like I want to level with someone, where they’re giving me what I’m giving them, and it’s fifty-fifty, and we’re each sharing it, then I’m willing to open up to people.”
Even with the deterioration of his personal family, Trey has a family of real friends who supports him and loves him. This kind of family can make up for the heaviness of loving unattachment that follows an unstable home life, he said.
“Family life is a little bit hectic,” Trey said. “My mother and stepfather-they don’t have the most healthy marriage. It’s not really a secret around here. It’s a little uncomfortable. One of the great things things I do have going for me is that I have a great amount of friends. My friends that are close to me…they’re more like family than anything.
“Usually, when Thanksgiving rolls around and Christmas rolls around, which it will be very soon, I will be spending the holidays with my friends. Even if you have a lack of family members, even a lack of a relationship within your family, if you have solid friends-I think everybody can kind of attest to this-they can step up and replace the family you never had.”
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, race, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University. Email Dennis at dfreeman@news4usonline.com
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