Pride celebrations have been in full swing throughout the month of June — a time for people to come together and celebrate their differences and what makes individuals who they are. Pride creates a welcoming environment that shows that even as some members of society view members of the LGBTQ+ community differently, there is still a place full of welcoming people. 

“She will tell you what you need to do, where she wants the ball, how she’ll inspire you, she will cheer you on and be at your beck.” –Shayna Ross, CSU goalkeeper

Differences and feeling out of places at times can sometimes feel like the norm for people within the LGBTQ+ community, and defender for the Colorado State University women’s soccer team Megan Demski is no exception. While Demski said she does feel accepted by her teammates, there are times when she feels out of place too.

“The only hard part for me (is) not that I feel not accepted,” Demski said. “Just sometimes girls on my team are like, ‘Oh, who’s all dating your boyfriends?’ or, ‘What are your boyfriends up to tonight?’ or something like that. But I always have a few teammates that are like, ‘Oh — and girlfriends,’ and, like, someone always catches on.”

Demski clarified that she doesn’t feel like it’s intentional that people don’t ask about her partners but that people just have to get used to it, and she has felt like her team loves her for who she is.

“I just feel so accepted and loved, and they love me for me, and I love that,” Demski said. 

While Demski originally hails from Illinois, where she played three seasons at Loyola University Chicago and won a Missouri Valley Conference Championship. During her junior season, she decided she needed a change of scenery and that CSU was the right place. 

“I love the city — don’t get me wrong — especially Chicago with Lake Michigan, but I just felt this calling to nature as funny as that sounds,” Demski said. “I just found myself more at peace, and now that I’m here and have the mountains, like, an hour away, I feel more at peace instead of just, like, the crazy-busy life.”

Part of the peace that Demski talks about does come from her coming out. She didn’t come out until her junior year, just prior to transferring, but felt a lot happier after she did. 

“I kind of really started to come out at Loyola,” Demski said. “That was kind of my motivation when I got here. … I’ve made so much progress at that university, I want to just finally kind of be who I want to be here (at CSU).”

Demski also talked about how coming out to her family helped relieve so much of the anxiety she had built up over the years and how much bigger it seemed in her head. 

“I was just sitting in my bedroom, and I was like, ‘I need to go tell my parents,’” Demski said. She gathered her two brothers and parents in the family room to tell them.

“I was kind of just like, ‘Hey, I need to tell you guys something’ and told them, and then right after I said it, there was kind of a silence, and I was like, ‘Oh, did I do something wrong?’ and then my brothers tripped in right away and were like, ‘Megan, that’s cool, like, we love you,’ and my parents did the same.”

Feeling that love from her family helped her become who she is at CSU. Her teammate and roommate goalkeeper Shayna Ross recalls meeting Demski for the first time. 

“My first impressions were (that) this girl is very energetic, very passionate and is here for a cause,” Ross said. “(Demski) wants to be here, she wants to be at CSU, she enjoys life.”

Ross said that since the two met, Demski’s discipline and hard work is something that Ross recalls often. However, there is always time for fun and crazy stories: Ross, who lives with Demski, recalls a time she went to cook a potato in the microwave, and after leaving in it for too long, it started smoking and filling the apartment with smoke. 

“Smoke starts filling the apartment, (Demski) started yelling at me that there was smoke; she opened up the microwave, and there was just this burnt potato,” Ross said. “She started throwing the potato at me, and we had a whole issue: We started opening up the doors, and it was kind of crazy. And then some other girls started coming into our apartment asking if there was a fire in our apartment, and Megan was just calm, and she handled it. … She’ll never let me live it down.”

That calmness in the face of chaos is something that Demski often expresses, especially on the field. 

“She will tell you what you need to do, where she wants the ball and how she’ll inspire you,” Ross said.” She will cheer you on and be at your beck. There was one point where where we were alone doing fitness, and on the last rep I was very very tired. I was doing my field fitness — and I am not a field player — so I was going to take the rep off, but she cheered me on, and she encouraged me, and she gave me a little bit of tough love and was like, ‘Hey, you’re not stopping — you’re going to keep going.’”

This drive is what Demski said helps keep her working hard in the offseason. The athletes on the CSU’s women’s soccer team have to pass fitness tests prior to the season. Demski said preparing during the summer is essential to pass the tests and that she keeps up her conditioning so she can be ready for the season. 

“You definitely have to continue running, but I think it’s good to put the ball away for a little bit,” Demski said. “And just focus on your fitness, because you’re going be doing two a days, three a days (a week) in like two months, and you’re going to be training until you almost pass out.”

This is the kind of hard work that Demski hopes will take her into her future career as a physical therapist. While she doesn’t know exactly who she wants to work with or where she wants to be in the future, she said she feels confident in who she has become since coming to CSU. 

“I don’t want to put a label on myself,” Demski said. “I don’t think it’s something that I need to put a label on. I just prefer to like who I like, and if that changes, great, and it’s not really affecting other people, so I feel comfortable with that point right now.”

Reach Damon Cook at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @dwcook2001.