Things didn’t work out between Zach Shallcross andRachel Recchiaon her season ofThe Bachelorette,but now he’ll get another shot at love when he steps up as the nextBachelor.
“I’ve taken the lessons I’ve learned and want to apply it for myself and find my person now,” Shallcross, 26, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “Heartbreak is never fun, but it didn’t deter me. And I’m ready to go again.”
Shallcross met his first batch of women during Tuesday’s “After the Final Rose” special and handed out his first rose. The tech executive says he knows what he wants in a partner.
“There’s really two main things that I look for and first is how kind and compassionate they are. I think that’s something that’s pretty rare nowadays,” Shallcross says. “The other thing is having someone that loves to do fun, adventurous stuff with me, whether it’s traveling, trying cool foods.”
Zach Shallcross.ABC
The Californian hopes audiences see more of his fun side on his season.
“I think what people maybe didn’t see onThe Bachelorette, but what they can expect [to], is I love to have a good time. I’m actually pretty fun, goofy guy,” Shallcross says. “I like to think I am a romantic, but it’s not all serious with me. I like to have a good time.”
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Shallcross learned just how much of a romantic he can be while dating Recchia, 26. “One of the biggest lessons I learned was I’m a guy that typically wears his heart on his sleeve,” he says. “If you can show your emotions and not be scared about it, I really think that’s an important attribute, but in my case, I think I fell in love really hard and really fast and I didn’t necessarily take a step back and look at the entire situation from her perspective.”
So going into his own season, Shallcross plans on being “a little initially cautious and making sure that understanding the whole situation and don’t fall too quick.”
Shallcross and Recchiabroke upfollowingtheir overnight date, after he felt like he saw a different side of the Bachelorette. He also thought Recchia questioned how he could be ready for an engagement at his age.
“My take on that is when you know, you know,” he says. “I don’t think that there’s anything where there’s an age limit on when you decide you want to fall in love and get married. if you are ready and you feel well equipped with yourself, you love yourself, you trust yourself and you want to share that with someone else, it doesn’t matter how old you are.”
Rachel Recchia and Zach Shallcross.
Shallcross aims to have conversations with the women on his season early on to determine if they genuinely want to get engaged at the end of the process.
“That’s the No. 1 thing that is important to keep in mind because you don’t want to wait until it’s too late to find some hard truths,” he says. “What I’m going to focus on is having that open line of communication and hopefully building that trust to where they can always feel comfortable of letting me know where they really feel. I never want any of the women to feel caught off guard or blindsided.”
One thing Shallcross won’t stand for: Drama.
“I know it’s kind of inevitable when you’re in a house with 30 others and there’s going to be arguments or conversations that don’t go that well, but I’m not a fan of the drama,” he says. “If there’s a lot of drama going on in the house, what it tells me is that they’re not really serious and why they’re there is probably more for finding internet fame or whatever it is. So I’ll probably be pretty quick to cut that out.”
Even knowing the journey ahead won’t be entirely smooth, Shallcross can’t wait to begin. “I’m more excited than anything,” he says. “I just want to start already.”
For more on Zach Shallcross, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribehere.
source: people.com
