Alexis' Final Words
Alexis feels the burn of the blindside but leaves the game with no regrets.
"Yeah, didn't see that one coming at all. I think I made my papa proud, and that's the most important thing for me at least. I never lied once while I was here, I kept the level of integrity of who I am outside of this game. I think I brought her into this game and maybe that was my downfall. It was one hell of a rollercoaster and I would do it again in a heartbeat. It's the hardest thing I've ever done in my whole life and I can walk away very proud."
(cut)
"Not a single regret in the world. I played full out, I played with my whole heart. I made it way longer than I thought I would. It's the hardest thing, mental, physical, or spiritual, that I've ever done, and I'm better for having been here. Absolutely no regrets."
(cut)
"I'm rooting for my girl Nat, not even a question! I think if she plays her cards right she'll definitely have a shot in the end."
(cut)
"No, I'm not angry. It's a game, and you come into it knowing that. Hell, if I were her I would have taken me out. No, I'm not mad at all."
(cut)
"I really think if Natalie plays her cards right she has a solid shot at the end. She's kind of an underdog and people are going to underestimate her. I think she'll work her magic with the jury. She has a natural vulnerability about her and an honesty about her that will definitely win jury votes."
(cut)
"I think I would rather be blindsided than to go into it knowing I was going to be voted out. Personally. Just cause then it's one fell swoop and you're done and you don't have to sit there and think about it. If there was a way to go, this was the way to go for me."
(cut)
"I can honestly say there's no one left I think shouldn't win. They're all truly great people. I respect them all. It's anybody's game at this point."
(cut)
"I don't know, you take someone for face value. I know in this game so far I haven't lied and maybe I put that on someone else, just assuming that she wouldn't lie to me and maybe I'm a little too trusting in retrospect. I took her for face value."
Tribal Council Voting
The tribe casts their votes believing Amanda is going home.
Cirie (Amanda with a heart): We both know this is just going through the motions. This doesn't mean anything. All part of the plan.
Natalie (Amanda with a heart over a star): This is only because I would not win against you, and if I did not make this vote, I would be handing you a million dollars, and I need to stay in this game. Sorry.
Alexis (Amanda with a heart): Amanda, I absolutely adore you. This is one of the hardest votes I'll put in.
Erik (Amanda): I gotta stop taking this game so personally. I'm really sorry. I am sorry.
Amanda (Alexis): Hey, babe. I'm voting for you because I have the idol. I think you're a great person and I really respect your game. You're very, very likeable, and the next biggest threat. I'm sorry, you have to go.
Parvati (Alexis): You are one of the funniest girls I've ever met, and I'm going to miss you a lot. I gave my word to Nat I would take care of her and protect her through this vote, so it's gotta be you this time. Sorry babe.
Natalie versus the Chicken
James Secret Scene
With nowhere to turn, James tests the waters with Alexis in hopes of finding a way to go further in the game. Instead, all he gets is aggravated.
(day 33)
James: Parvati, she's working her magic.
Alexis: Parvati has all the control right now.
James (solo): The two people running the game right now have to be Alexis and Parvati. Parvati because she has connections with the most people, and Alexis because she has the girl power and can woo the whole thing together.
James: Parvati wouldn't bring me.
Alexis: You don't think?
James: No.
Alexis: That sucks, because I'm so loyal to my friends, I would take my friends even if I thought they were a threat, because they're my friends.
James: I'm the dumbest Survivor ever, because I was willing to go against Ozzy. Nobody was going to win against Ozzy, so I mean...I don't know what she's going to do.
Alexis: I don't know either. I can't tell how close she is with Amanda because she was like, "I don't want to tell Amanda", and I remember looking at Natalie and I was like, "That <expletive> would never go down between you and me," and she was like, "Nope."
James (solo): Alexis is on a high horse about how she's forthright. Alexis brings up how Paravti wouldn't tell Amanda about Ozzy, how she'll never do that to Natalie. If you feel you'll never do that to your girl, why would you align with a girl who did that to hers? What you think she's gonna do to you?
James (to Alexis): I don't care. I just don't want to go behind the <expletive>.
James (solo) Right now I'm just trying to save energy and win challenges. Might have to make a deal with the old devil.
James (to Alexis): I'm trying to stay as long as I can. That's pretty much all I can do. I don't know.
James the Day After
On the mend from his sudden medical evacuation and surgery, James talks about the frustration of leaving the game.
"It was definitely easier to do it the second time. Not only the aspect of we kind of knew what to do and I had a little bit more survival skills under my belt, and it was just kind of recently, they had coconuts. The first time I lost 50 pounds. This time I only lost 9. They had coconuts and food and we had a cave to keep us warm. It was a whole lot easier. It was almost like a little vacation. It didn't feel like my Survivor [China]. I couldn't get up for challenges, I had to find other ways to motivate myself besides being a crazed animal who just wanted to win like I was at the other one."
(cut)
"For me I much rather would have been voted out. It's like closure. With a finger injury...granted it was one of those precautionary measures you have to abide by, and I completely understand that, but...it kills me."
(cut)
"The whole closure (?) is really getting to me right now. I try not to think about it too much. I've kind of been ignoring the fact that yeah I did get pulled out and I didn't really get voted out and all the other options and aspects that could have happened to keep the ball rolling. Chances are I would have started winning immunities, because there really wasn't anybody there to compete against me."
(cut)
"My thing with Jonathan was the girls were being a little bit melodramatic. They were trying to get rid of him anyway. I thought Jonathan was a great player and I enjoyed him being around. I needed his manness around. So actually Jonathan leaving me kind of hurt. Chet...I don't know what's wrong with him, so Chet's a whole other issue. Kathy, she should have taken other measures besides...she had to go. The fact of the thing was Kathy was being held hostage over there because the other ones wanted free votes. They had never really associated with Kathy until the mixup, the twist. Before the twist, Kathy was pretty much dirt to them. When the twist come up, they wanted to talk that Airai stuff, and rah-rah, we're gonna stick together. They pretty much did not allow her to leave. It's hard for me to watch a grown person being told what to do by some children. If she said she wanted to go they should have done the right thing by her and voted her out. But no, they needed her, they wanted her. It was aggravating for me to watch. Jonathan, I liked Jonathan around. Granted he was trying to get rid of me anyway, because I needed that man around. Jason, not so much. It was pretty much James and the girls."
(cut)
"The girl power is just a rally cry to unite them to get to their proper goal, which is the final 2, final 3, get to the end of the show. They know they're not gonna have to live through it."
(cut)
"We had 9 potatoes. They ate 9 potatoes in a day and a half. I said look if ya'll keep eating the way you're eating, in a couple days you're gonna be hungry and want a potato. (does a girly voice) 'Oh no, it's gonna be OK.' Sure enough, they ate all the potatoes, they didn't even wait a full day. By the end of the second day, somebody fixed their mouth to say (girly voice) 'Man, I wish we'd kept some of the potatoes.' Now in that instance, that's one of the times where James would have been like, 'I told your dumb ass if you'd eaten all those damn potatoes, you was gonna be hungry or definitely want a potato. We need those minerals, those nutrients. Ya'll wasting it and eating it cause you're bored is completely preposterous in this situation.' The leadership sucked, that's the thing. They had multiple episodes like that. They didn't like the cave cause it stunk. Well, darling, go in the rain. 'Are you wet?' 'I don't know.' They'll decide if each other are wet. They're grown people. The Paoloan guy said it best. When the two Paolan guys come over, one of them [the women] said, 'Do you think I need to put shoes on?' He said, 'They're your feet. You decide whether you need shoes or not. You're grown.' That's the way it should be. You should be able to decide whether you need shoes, whether it's raining on you and you need to go towards the shelter, and whether I need to save these potatoes for the next few days for the challenges to win and do more and feel better about myself. It's not the leadership of the girls, it's the way they did lead. I didn't mind having a girl leader if she led right."
(cut)
"The situation after the twist was I was with a bunch of dominant girls. Girl power was strong. Being I didn't want to get kicked out immediately, I had to hold my tongue at times. I had to not be myself. If you start off that way, assume the position throughout, you'll be a little more OK, but for you to flip flop throughout, to be a happy go lucky guy and all the sudden become a stern guy who doesn't put up with that stuff, it'll be bad for you."
Secret Scene Alexis
This far into the game blindsides sting. Alexis preaches to the tribe about respecting the people they vote off and giving them the courtesy of knowing they are going home.
(day 33; Amanda walks by Cirie, Alexis, Erik and Natalie as they work near the fire)
Alexis: Erik, did you tell Amanda we're all voting for her?
Erik: She was like, "We're friends, you owe it to me to tell me if you're voting for me."
Alexis (solo): Tonight's Tribal Council is huge because it's breaking up the 5 girls. Do I feel bad sending Amanda home on a personal level? Absolutely. Do I feel bad sending her home on a strategic level? Not at all.
Cirie: She said, "I knew it was me," and she looked me dead in the face with those doe eyes. I'm like...
Alexis: Cirie, she's scrambling, she's trying to make it personal, but at this point it's not personal.
Alexis (solo): Amanda definitely hit Erik and Cirie really hard as far as if they would vote for her. It's not personal at all. We all like each other. We all respect each other. At this point it is an individual game and it's about who's the biggest threat. Amanda's the biggest threat for all of us.
Erik: Nobody wants to be blindsided like Ozzy.
Alexis: At this point we respect each other enough to where I don't think it's right to blindside. If there comes a point when ya'll need to vote me out, it sucks, of course, no matter what, but I would hug ya'll when I left, versus, if I was blindsided, I might pull an Ozzy and (flips the bird) to all of ya'll who I thought were my friends, you didn't even give me the respect of telling me. I think at this point we're close enough where we give the respect of telling someone.
Alexis the Day After
Alexis describes the way Survivor has changed her life, leaving her with a renewed level of confidence to face the world.
"I think my favorite memory, hands down, was when Nate came to visit on the family day. Then winning the reward and getting to spend the whole day with him. It was the thing I was probably looking forward to the most, and then actually winning that reward and getting to spend the day with him. I think I cried from the very beginning of the morning to the very end, just because for me there's not really an experience as cool as when I get to share it with a family member out there, someone intimately close to me. It was awesome."
(cut)
"The reason it was so difficult is because you're deprived of everything. You're deprived of every single comfort or luxury you know. I mean, the most obvious are food and water and stuff like that, but you're right, I take for granted that every single day I get to talk to my mom on the phone. That every single day if something exciting or depressing or anything between happens, I can pick up a phone and call a family member and share it with them. To be completely cut off from my lifeline, my support system, my stabilizing rock is my family, to be cut off from that I think is worse than being cut off from food and basic necessities."
(cut)
"Every single day gave me a greater sense of, 'Wow, I can do this.' Whatever you have a greater sense of what you're capable of doing. In a weird way I feel like I came into this game a little girl and left a woman. Part of me wishes everyone got the opportunity to go into something so difficult because I think it's only really when you're put through the fire that you're able to step out of it that much stronger."
(cut)
"I'm certainly not going to ever complain. (laughs) You just don't complain as much. You're stuck in a car in traffic, you think this is hard? You're in a comfortable car, you're not hungry, you're not thirsty. I think part of it is I have a much more...it just makes you more appreciative. It makes you happier about what you have, not what you don't have. If I was an optimistic person before this - which I think I was - then I'm going to be an annoyingly after this. On top of that I think there's a level of confidence I never had, about believing in myself. Cirie said it so well at one point when she got back from Exile. 'If I can deal with that, I can deal with anything.' I think the same goes for me. If I can deal with playing that game for 33 days of injuring my knee as bad as I did and not leaving on medical leave, I can do anything. More than that, I have the will to try something out of my comfort zone. I think that's what this game teaches you. It's not just it's really hard and then you get through it, it's like you live uncomfortable. That word has become so rote, but literally everything you do is uncomfortable because you've never done it before. To coexist with that uncomfort and to kind of get used to it allows you to want to try anything out of your comfort zone because no way can it be as hard as this. That's why I can't wait to get back to real life, because hell, I may have been scared to try this, but I'm not scared to try anything at this point."
(cut)
"Probably one of the greatest things I walked away with was how distracted I've been in life. I haven't been living in this moment right here. I've been living with one eye on what's going on here, but one eye over here of all the things I have to do, and what's that over here, and crossing off to-do lists instead of reveling in what's before me. For the first time I'm excited to go home and really be present, if that makes sense. I don't want to be distracted by anything but being with the people I love."
(cut)
"Who would think I would have to come to the jungles of Micronesia to find a new way of being, to find a new confidence I didn't know I had. When they say this is a chance of a lifetime, it's a chance of a lifetime out here. Especially me being so young, being 24 and walking away with a life experience that will change me forever. That's how you win the game."
Alexis feels the burn of the blindside but leaves the game with no regrets.
"Yeah, didn't see that one coming at all. I think I made my papa proud, and that's the most important thing for me at least. I never lied once while I was here, I kept the level of integrity of who I am outside of this game. I think I brought her into this game and maybe that was my downfall. It was one hell of a rollercoaster and I would do it again in a heartbeat. It's the hardest thing I've ever done in my whole life and I can walk away very proud."
(cut)
"Not a single regret in the world. I played full out, I played with my whole heart. I made it way longer than I thought I would. It's the hardest thing, mental, physical, or spiritual, that I've ever done, and I'm better for having been here. Absolutely no regrets."
(cut)
"I'm rooting for my girl Nat, not even a question! I think if she plays her cards right she'll definitely have a shot in the end."
(cut)
"No, I'm not angry. It's a game, and you come into it knowing that. Hell, if I were her I would have taken me out. No, I'm not mad at all."
(cut)
"I really think if Natalie plays her cards right she has a solid shot at the end. She's kind of an underdog and people are going to underestimate her. I think she'll work her magic with the jury. She has a natural vulnerability about her and an honesty about her that will definitely win jury votes."
(cut)
"I think I would rather be blindsided than to go into it knowing I was going to be voted out. Personally. Just cause then it's one fell swoop and you're done and you don't have to sit there and think about it. If there was a way to go, this was the way to go for me."
(cut)
"I can honestly say there's no one left I think shouldn't win. They're all truly great people. I respect them all. It's anybody's game at this point."
(cut)
"I don't know, you take someone for face value. I know in this game so far I haven't lied and maybe I put that on someone else, just assuming that she wouldn't lie to me and maybe I'm a little too trusting in retrospect. I took her for face value."
Tribal Council Voting
The tribe casts their votes believing Amanda is going home.
Cirie (Amanda with a heart): We both know this is just going through the motions. This doesn't mean anything. All part of the plan.
Natalie (Amanda with a heart over a star): This is only because I would not win against you, and if I did not make this vote, I would be handing you a million dollars, and I need to stay in this game. Sorry.
Alexis (Amanda with a heart): Amanda, I absolutely adore you. This is one of the hardest votes I'll put in.
Erik (Amanda): I gotta stop taking this game so personally. I'm really sorry. I am sorry.
Amanda (Alexis): Hey, babe. I'm voting for you because I have the idol. I think you're a great person and I really respect your game. You're very, very likeable, and the next biggest threat. I'm sorry, you have to go.
Parvati (Alexis): You are one of the funniest girls I've ever met, and I'm going to miss you a lot. I gave my word to Nat I would take care of her and protect her through this vote, so it's gotta be you this time. Sorry babe.
Natalie versus the Chicken
It's dinnertime at the Dabu camp. Natalie takes a whack at the role of provider.
(Natalie tries to behead the chicken, "Juanita". She freaks out and Erik has to finish the job. Alexis tells her that's better than she would have done, and Natalie says she's better with a gun.)James Secret Scene
With nowhere to turn, James tests the waters with Alexis in hopes of finding a way to go further in the game. Instead, all he gets is aggravated.
(day 33)
James: Parvati, she's working her magic.
Alexis: Parvati has all the control right now.
James (solo): The two people running the game right now have to be Alexis and Parvati. Parvati because she has connections with the most people, and Alexis because she has the girl power and can woo the whole thing together.
James: Parvati wouldn't bring me.
Alexis: You don't think?
James: No.
Alexis: That sucks, because I'm so loyal to my friends, I would take my friends even if I thought they were a threat, because they're my friends.
James: I'm the dumbest Survivor ever, because I was willing to go against Ozzy. Nobody was going to win against Ozzy, so I mean...I don't know what she's going to do.
Alexis: I don't know either. I can't tell how close she is with Amanda because she was like, "I don't want to tell Amanda", and I remember looking at Natalie and I was like, "That <expletive> would never go down between you and me," and she was like, "Nope."
James (solo): Alexis is on a high horse about how she's forthright. Alexis brings up how Paravti wouldn't tell Amanda about Ozzy, how she'll never do that to Natalie. If you feel you'll never do that to your girl, why would you align with a girl who did that to hers? What you think she's gonna do to you?
James (to Alexis): I don't care. I just don't want to go behind the <expletive>.
James (solo) Right now I'm just trying to save energy and win challenges. Might have to make a deal with the old devil.
James (to Alexis): I'm trying to stay as long as I can. That's pretty much all I can do. I don't know.
James the Day After
On the mend from his sudden medical evacuation and surgery, James talks about the frustration of leaving the game.
"It was definitely easier to do it the second time. Not only the aspect of we kind of knew what to do and I had a little bit more survival skills under my belt, and it was just kind of recently, they had coconuts. The first time I lost 50 pounds. This time I only lost 9. They had coconuts and food and we had a cave to keep us warm. It was a whole lot easier. It was almost like a little vacation. It didn't feel like my Survivor [China]. I couldn't get up for challenges, I had to find other ways to motivate myself besides being a crazed animal who just wanted to win like I was at the other one."
(cut)
"For me I much rather would have been voted out. It's like closure. With a finger injury...granted it was one of those precautionary measures you have to abide by, and I completely understand that, but...it kills me."
(cut)
"The whole closure (?) is really getting to me right now. I try not to think about it too much. I've kind of been ignoring the fact that yeah I did get pulled out and I didn't really get voted out and all the other options and aspects that could have happened to keep the ball rolling. Chances are I would have started winning immunities, because there really wasn't anybody there to compete against me."
(cut)
"My thing with Jonathan was the girls were being a little bit melodramatic. They were trying to get rid of him anyway. I thought Jonathan was a great player and I enjoyed him being around. I needed his manness around. So actually Jonathan leaving me kind of hurt. Chet...I don't know what's wrong with him, so Chet's a whole other issue. Kathy, she should have taken other measures besides...she had to go. The fact of the thing was Kathy was being held hostage over there because the other ones wanted free votes. They had never really associated with Kathy until the mixup, the twist. Before the twist, Kathy was pretty much dirt to them. When the twist come up, they wanted to talk that Airai stuff, and rah-rah, we're gonna stick together. They pretty much did not allow her to leave. It's hard for me to watch a grown person being told what to do by some children. If she said she wanted to go they should have done the right thing by her and voted her out. But no, they needed her, they wanted her. It was aggravating for me to watch. Jonathan, I liked Jonathan around. Granted he was trying to get rid of me anyway, because I needed that man around. Jason, not so much. It was pretty much James and the girls."
(cut)
"The girl power is just a rally cry to unite them to get to their proper goal, which is the final 2, final 3, get to the end of the show. They know they're not gonna have to live through it."
(cut)
"We had 9 potatoes. They ate 9 potatoes in a day and a half. I said look if ya'll keep eating the way you're eating, in a couple days you're gonna be hungry and want a potato. (does a girly voice) 'Oh no, it's gonna be OK.' Sure enough, they ate all the potatoes, they didn't even wait a full day. By the end of the second day, somebody fixed their mouth to say (girly voice) 'Man, I wish we'd kept some of the potatoes.' Now in that instance, that's one of the times where James would have been like, 'I told your dumb ass if you'd eaten all those damn potatoes, you was gonna be hungry or definitely want a potato. We need those minerals, those nutrients. Ya'll wasting it and eating it cause you're bored is completely preposterous in this situation.' The leadership sucked, that's the thing. They had multiple episodes like that. They didn't like the cave cause it stunk. Well, darling, go in the rain. 'Are you wet?' 'I don't know.' They'll decide if each other are wet. They're grown people. The Paoloan guy said it best. When the two Paolan guys come over, one of them [the women] said, 'Do you think I need to put shoes on?' He said, 'They're your feet. You decide whether you need shoes or not. You're grown.' That's the way it should be. You should be able to decide whether you need shoes, whether it's raining on you and you need to go towards the shelter, and whether I need to save these potatoes for the next few days for the challenges to win and do more and feel better about myself. It's not the leadership of the girls, it's the way they did lead. I didn't mind having a girl leader if she led right."
(cut)
"The situation after the twist was I was with a bunch of dominant girls. Girl power was strong. Being I didn't want to get kicked out immediately, I had to hold my tongue at times. I had to not be myself. If you start off that way, assume the position throughout, you'll be a little more OK, but for you to flip flop throughout, to be a happy go lucky guy and all the sudden become a stern guy who doesn't put up with that stuff, it'll be bad for you."
Secret Scene Alexis
This far into the game blindsides sting. Alexis preaches to the tribe about respecting the people they vote off and giving them the courtesy of knowing they are going home.
(day 33; Amanda walks by Cirie, Alexis, Erik and Natalie as they work near the fire)
Alexis: Erik, did you tell Amanda we're all voting for her?
Erik: She was like, "We're friends, you owe it to me to tell me if you're voting for me."
Alexis (solo): Tonight's Tribal Council is huge because it's breaking up the 5 girls. Do I feel bad sending Amanda home on a personal level? Absolutely. Do I feel bad sending her home on a strategic level? Not at all.
Cirie: She said, "I knew it was me," and she looked me dead in the face with those doe eyes. I'm like...
Alexis: Cirie, she's scrambling, she's trying to make it personal, but at this point it's not personal.
Alexis (solo): Amanda definitely hit Erik and Cirie really hard as far as if they would vote for her. It's not personal at all. We all like each other. We all respect each other. At this point it is an individual game and it's about who's the biggest threat. Amanda's the biggest threat for all of us.
Erik: Nobody wants to be blindsided like Ozzy.
Alexis: At this point we respect each other enough to where I don't think it's right to blindside. If there comes a point when ya'll need to vote me out, it sucks, of course, no matter what, but I would hug ya'll when I left, versus, if I was blindsided, I might pull an Ozzy and (flips the bird) to all of ya'll who I thought were my friends, you didn't even give me the respect of telling me. I think at this point we're close enough where we give the respect of telling someone.
Alexis the Day After
Alexis describes the way Survivor has changed her life, leaving her with a renewed level of confidence to face the world.
"I think my favorite memory, hands down, was when Nate came to visit on the family day. Then winning the reward and getting to spend the whole day with him. It was the thing I was probably looking forward to the most, and then actually winning that reward and getting to spend the day with him. I think I cried from the very beginning of the morning to the very end, just because for me there's not really an experience as cool as when I get to share it with a family member out there, someone intimately close to me. It was awesome."
(cut)
"The reason it was so difficult is because you're deprived of everything. You're deprived of every single comfort or luxury you know. I mean, the most obvious are food and water and stuff like that, but you're right, I take for granted that every single day I get to talk to my mom on the phone. That every single day if something exciting or depressing or anything between happens, I can pick up a phone and call a family member and share it with them. To be completely cut off from my lifeline, my support system, my stabilizing rock is my family, to be cut off from that I think is worse than being cut off from food and basic necessities."
(cut)
"Every single day gave me a greater sense of, 'Wow, I can do this.' Whatever you have a greater sense of what you're capable of doing. In a weird way I feel like I came into this game a little girl and left a woman. Part of me wishes everyone got the opportunity to go into something so difficult because I think it's only really when you're put through the fire that you're able to step out of it that much stronger."
(cut)
"I'm certainly not going to ever complain. (laughs) You just don't complain as much. You're stuck in a car in traffic, you think this is hard? You're in a comfortable car, you're not hungry, you're not thirsty. I think part of it is I have a much more...it just makes you more appreciative. It makes you happier about what you have, not what you don't have. If I was an optimistic person before this - which I think I was - then I'm going to be an annoyingly after this. On top of that I think there's a level of confidence I never had, about believing in myself. Cirie said it so well at one point when she got back from Exile. 'If I can deal with that, I can deal with anything.' I think the same goes for me. If I can deal with playing that game for 33 days of injuring my knee as bad as I did and not leaving on medical leave, I can do anything. More than that, I have the will to try something out of my comfort zone. I think that's what this game teaches you. It's not just it's really hard and then you get through it, it's like you live uncomfortable. That word has become so rote, but literally everything you do is uncomfortable because you've never done it before. To coexist with that uncomfort and to kind of get used to it allows you to want to try anything out of your comfort zone because no way can it be as hard as this. That's why I can't wait to get back to real life, because hell, I may have been scared to try this, but I'm not scared to try anything at this point."
(cut)
"Probably one of the greatest things I walked away with was how distracted I've been in life. I haven't been living in this moment right here. I've been living with one eye on what's going on here, but one eye over here of all the things I have to do, and what's that over here, and crossing off to-do lists instead of reveling in what's before me. For the first time I'm excited to go home and really be present, if that makes sense. I don't want to be distracted by anything but being with the people I love."
(cut)
"Who would think I would have to come to the jungles of Micronesia to find a new way of being, to find a new confidence I didn't know I had. When they say this is a chance of a lifetime, it's a chance of a lifetime out here. Especially me being so young, being 24 and walking away with a life experience that will change me forever. That's how you win the game."
