Board Thread:Survivor 30: Legends/@comment-29261560-20180304225938

Hey guys!

Honestly, words can’t express how surprised I am to actually be here. If you told me this was happening at the beginning of this game, odds are I probably would’ve laughed in your face. Needless to say I’m incredibly grateful to be in this position to plead my case to you guys so let’s just dive right into this!

Since the very beginning of this game I have been working so hard to keep myself safe. I was immediately put at a disadvantage after being pegged as a duo with Nick and losing him during our first vote. I was essentially told that had we lost again, I would most likely had been going so throughout all the challenges I tried my best and tried to up my social game to the best of my ability. Then once the swap hit, everything had changed as I was suddenly put in a position where I could exploit my worries about Natalie and put a target on her which in turn allowed me to finally get some stable footing in the game.

As time went on I definitely received my fair share of criticisms but no matter what feelings people expressed about me, whether it be Zak saying I’d just be playing for 2nd/3rd again, Fariha saying I’d most likely be next to go after her, Chris B. saying that I wasn’t winning and Eva’s constant remarks  towards me, I never lost the motivation to keep going in order to make it here. I’m not gonna lie, I definitely feel as though people underestimated me as seen through so many people being targeted before me such as Sam for her challenge strength but at the end of the day, that perception only furthered my drive to get here.

Keeping these things in mind, I feel like overall I did the best I possibly could have done in the three main aspects of this game:

Socially, I always tried to keep my options open and aligned myself with nearly everyone I could. I knew I couldn’t be picky with alliances once Nick left and so after his elimination I got on call with Perry and made amends while later keeping up the facade during the swaps that we weren’t close after everything that had happened. Although this didn’t pan out to well due to him leaving as early as he did, I’m sure we could’ve done some real damage as a duo no one saw coming. The only major exceptions to this would be Natalie, Zakriah and Eva. This was due to the fact I knew I could never have a working relationship with them and associating myself with them would only hinder my game. However, with this being said whenever something didn’t go my way, I made sure to never hold too much of a grudge which was especially seen after Evan’s elimination as although my closest allies had betrayed me, I knew that they had to do what was best for their game and I could never fault them for that.

Strategically, I wasn’t afraid to put myself in the line of fire. Because of my light pearl, throwing out my name was always just kind of the go to thing, especially due to the fact Eva was willingly throwing it out to people. I was willing to go to rocks for those I was close with and if we’re counting Torsa’s round, people were willing to go to rocks for me as well. I was always willing to stick my neck out for my allies, as seen through my ability to get info on the Perry vote despite not even being in the alliance chat of the visionaries + Chris N./Eddie after revealing to Evan that he was getting votes along with during the Eddie vote as I pulled him on call after hearing from Jessy that she was targeting him which later escalated into dragging Evan and Sam in as well in a last minute scramble.

This is also prominently seen after Evan’s elimination where I had even more of a fire to fight and began to stick more to my gut feelings which is why I worked so hard to keep Sam as I knew I couldn’t rely on Asa/Fitz to keep me and Alissa safe in the upcoming rounds despite them promising Alissa a final four deal with us which overall shows that each time I had lost an ally, I would always try and bounce back by creating a new game plan.

Finally physically, I put everything I had into these challenges and possibly killed any sanity I had left by staying up hours on end throughout the night to get the job done whether it be through that basketball challenge, focusing so much on Winterbells that I didn’t even realize the deadline passed or the 46 hours spent on that final endurance. I pulled through when I needed to, especially by winning those last two immunities and made the effort needed to make it to this point.

Ultimately, I feel like I did everything to the best of my ability to secure a legend status within the 703 series as I went from being a seemingly irrelevant player in Caracol, to stepping it up and making it to final tribal and getting second in Bora Bora and ultimately perfecting each and every one of my mistakes and applying them here to Legends to once again make the final 3 this time around with 0 official votes casted against me. I lived up to my title as a Survivor by defying the odds with my strategic thinking, granted a little bit of luck here and there, my physical prowess and finally social awareness.

With all this being said, I’m happy to answer any questions you guys might have for me! :)  