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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Well, I got to start with where things finished. You know, you were one of the votes for Kyle in the end. Talk to me through your logic in your final vote. Were you someone that came into tribal open minded? Was there something that somebody said that turned your vote one way or the other?
00:17Yes, I came into tribal council being open. I knew that when push came to shove, like I would have loved for Kyle to walk away with the mail.
00:32But I walked into that tribal knowing that Joe and Eva also played an incredible game and did what they had to do in order for them to be sitting there, even despite everybody actively knowing that they were so close.
00:50But ultimately, I felt like Kyle played a complete game of Survivor. He played a great social game. He made everyone feel like they had a chance to work with him at some point.
01:04He was able to come out with some huge immunity wins. He played just a really good overall game.
01:15Well, I imagine that, you know, it's a lot to decompress for you over the past couple of days while you're out on the island, right?
01:22Because you get this incredibly straightforward, you know, vote out where everyone's telling you you're so likable, you're going to be so good in the end.
01:30That's why we have to get rid of you. So talk me through your headspace during that day.
01:34And what was it like to sort of, you know, try to handle that in the jury while also simultaneously being like, yeah, in 48 hours, you also have to vote for one of them to win as well.
01:45Yeah, unfortunately, on day 24, the moment Camilla won, like, I just became so comfortable.
01:55And you just can't, you can't do that. And I should have had an idea that it made more sense for Kyle and Camilla to want to sit next to Joe and Eva.
02:09I knew if I was sitting there with any of them that even though I didn't play the biggest game or the most, the most strategic game, like I knew that I would be competitive to get anyone's vote.
02:31Um, so getting voted out, um, was tough. Like I was like, man, I chose not to make a big move because I felt like if I could get to seek someone with flip and which exactly happened.
02:47And then at five, I was like, if I can just win one, like I can throw myself in to fire at four.
02:57And I felt like I had a great story. I felt like I, everybody genuinely enjoyed me. Yes, I didn't play the biggest, biggest game and survivor.
03:09But sometimes that doesn't have to happen in order for you to, to, to, to win.
03:24Uh, but getting only 48 hours to process everything and to figure out like who I wanted to represent us as a season was incredibly hard.
03:37You're like, what just happened? I felt like I was so close to getting there and then having to put all of those emotions aside and be like, all right.
03:50Like, yes, I'm hurt and I'm sad and I'm disappointed, but here, like, who do I think played the best overall game?
04:02Well, you mentioned it at the final five. You mentioned it here as well.
04:05This sort of like hindsight reflection of I should have made a big move.
04:10And, you know, there were a couple of times maybe where you're approaching you, you do the old Mitch finger shake.
04:14So if you could give me one move, the biggest move that you wish you could have made in retrospect that could have led to you sitting in the end, what do you think that move would have been?
04:25Honestly, I do not think, uh, the, the only move that I could have made that puts me in the end is at the final five.
04:36If I, I, I blow, I blow, I blow, well, um, I, I, I blow up, I blow up, I, if I blow up Kyle's spot, I could have told Eva and Joe like what he was doing that the whole time he was working with me and come, come, come.
05:06Come, come Mila. Um, but man, I just let my heart, um, like stop me. Uh, I just couldn't do it. Um, so.
05:27Well, that's interesting because you, you sort of vocalize to us, you know, you sort of put yourselves in the hands of the fans at that final eight when you get approached about forcing this.
05:36Yes. Yes. Okay.
05:37Okay. So the morning of the final eight, I go up to, to star and I say, Hey, me, Kyle, Camilla, you, Mary.
05:53Then once it's five, me, Kyle, Camilla, you, once at the four, if I have immunity, I will give it up.
06:03You and Camilla can sit at the end together. I will take Kyle out and fire.
06:08It was about maybe 10 minutes later where I walked to the beach and I'm sitting with Kyle and Joe and Eva and Eva tells me exactly what I just had a conversation with.
06:27With, with, with star about, she literally told them everything.
06:40And I'm like, why then what they show is me saying, wow, what a joke.
06:50Of course, I don't want to work with you star because you literally just told them exactly what I planned on doing with you.
06:58I wanted to make a move there, but she literally went and told them everything.
07:04How are you going to tell the people with the ad, all of the advantages, what the move we want to make is like, it made no sense.
07:16So, of course, then I'm like, well, I don't want to make a move with you now.
07:20You literally just told the person we're trying to vote off that we're coming for them.
07:26And because I had a relationship with Joe and Eva, I was like, oh, my God, no.
07:31Like, I would never have voted with her.
07:35Yes, like, I wanted to make that move there, but she literally went and told them everything.
07:42So then I'm like, well, no, this is stupid.
07:44I'm not going to make a move with you because I don't even know what you're going to actually do.
07:49Like, she, and then this goes to show you that she thought she was playing with them still.
07:55Like, she wholeheartedly thought she was safe.
07:59I told her, we're voting you off.
08:01And she chose not to play her shot in the dark because she felt comfortable.
08:06She thought Joe and Eva Chaggy weren't going to vote for her, which is why it made no sense for me to vote with Kyle, excuse me, with Camilla and Mary and Star.
08:21Because up to this point, even going home, like, she thought she was playing with them still.
08:29So, you mentioned, you know, if you had your druthers, you would have blown up Kyle's spot.
08:35I'm curious because it's clear that you were very close to Kyle and Camilla.
08:39You know, those Siva ties run strong.
08:41Did you have any sense as to how closely they've been working together out there?
08:45What was sort of your reaction when this bomb gets dropped at final drop?
08:48I knew both of them were super close.
08:52Like, every conversation that I would have with Kyle, he'd be like, all right, I'm going to go and talk with Camilla.
09:08Yeah, like, I knew that both of them were close.
09:13So, but I needed both of them there.
09:21Like, I had a chance to throw Camilla under the bus whenever Kyle was, like, trying to figure out if Camilla and Joaquin were playing together closely.
09:38And I said, okay, like, yes, like, I think they're playing closely, but I know she's playing with us too.
09:45Which, in hindsight, if I would have thrown Camilla under the bus there, then it opens up a partnership form for me and Kyle.
10:09So, well, you spoke about when you were out there, maybe sort of like your surprise at the fact that, you know, you had some pause coming in about how much your stutter might impact, you know, your social game.
10:22And it turns out that, you know, to your point, you were voted out more so because of your social game than anything.
10:28And you even found these moments to connect with someone like Cedric, you know, over his shared history with a speech impediment.
10:34So what was it like for you to sort of discover that sort of kinship out in the island?
10:40And what has it also been like to, you know, have your story be so positively received by so many people out there in the Survivor fandom as well?
10:47Yeah, it was really incredible getting to have that conversation because it's like he genuinely knows what it's like, like he knows how hard it is and uncomfortable it is and how much courage it took for me to get out there.
11:10Like most people like hate to speak in front of other people.
11:17Well, I have a speech impediment and I stutter and I voluntarily chose to go and stutter in front of 4 million people everywhere and stay like it's hard, but I stutter every day at home.
11:34Like this is the story I have and I wanted to prove to myself that even despite having a stutter, actually no, but even through having a stutter, like I am more than capable of doing anything that anyone else is able to do.
11:53Honestly, like my stutter, like my stutter makes me unique and it gives me the ability to build genuine relationships with people because I get to be incredibly vulnerable and I think it just makes other people feel like they can also be vulnerable as well.
12:17And I'm so glad I was able to share my story and hopefully encourage other people who have a speech impediment or have something that they are incredibly insecure about that they might view as a big weakness.
12:35And it's like, actually like, no, like it does make things harder in moments, but it doesn't mean it's not possible.
12:43It just might have to look a little bit different.
12:48Well, that's the thing is that, you know, your openness is so incredibly admirable, both on and off the island.
12:54And as was talked about back at the second episode, right, we all have humble traits and you pointed out that yours is, you know, a bit more visible than maybe some other ones.
13:02But like it shows at the end of the day, we are all people.
13:05You are a person and you are a person with an incredibly important story to tell.
13:10And I am so grateful that you got the opportunity to, you know, act upon this decade long dream to go out there and have it reflect so positively among so many other people as well.
13:20You know, myself included.
13:21So it was an absolute honor to get the chance to talk with you beforehand, to get the chance to talk with you after.
13:26I'm sure we'll have many more conversations to come.
13:29But, Mitch, thank you so much.
13:30Congratulations on, you know, getting to have this dream come true.
13:34I know it was not the literal victory, but it was quite an emotional victory for you.
13:39And I know how much that means to you and how much it means to so many people out there that you even stepped foot on that beach in the first place.
13:46Thank you so much, Mike.