There have been a few “famous people” that I have definitely wanted to meet if the opportunity presented itself. I was never the girl growing up that had a collage of the hottest male celebs or gets obsessive over the idea of a person. When it comes down to it, it’s a game, and it’s reality TV, which means that people play that game to win, and television only shows bits and pieces that they want to see. I watch the shows and I laugh because he’s ridiculous sometimes, but at the same time he’s got his shit together and clearly The Dragon Slayer doesn’t need anyone’s approval.
We all make decisions that probably weren’t the best at the time. He got a lot of shit from the media and a lot of people when the first time he was on, he didn’t exactly quit his coaching job at SBU, but really people, we’re all human. The host of the show Jeff Probst went on record saying that he didn’t feel like Coach did anything to earn his villans reputation that landed him on the villans team his second time around on Survivor. He definitely became a controversial player, if only for the fact that he didn’t take crap from anyone and he didn’t compromise in a game where everyone is constantly compromising. He stated from the beginning that he is a man of integrity and that he would play the game with every sense of integrity that he has in him.
For full extended monologue, please refer to clips or the script edition cited here: Guare, John, Six Degrees of Separation, Vintage Books, 1994, pp 31-34.
Now, it’s Survivor, and Survivor is a GAME (I think a lot of people forget that while watching) and everyone has their favorites and the people that they don’t like, and since it’s reality TV there is a lot of gossip about any player that leaves their mark on the show. The imagination, That’s God’s gift to make the act of self-examination bearable. I was absolutely blown away, because I didn’t think that he would e-mail me back, let alone agree to meet me. AND he e-mailed me back and invited me to watch a soccer game close to Sacramento and to meet him afterward. So, at the risk of sounding like an obsessive fan, I e-mailed him. They laughed and said that probably wouldn’t happen because he’s busy and doesn’t have time for fans. Wow, small freaking world! Well, naturally, I got super excited and I told my grandparents that they should see if I could somehow meet him because of these random connections. This is how I figured it out, my grandparent’s friend has a neighbor whose coworker is dating Coach! And that he coaches soccer at Lassen College, which is only three hours north of where I am from. But I learned a few days ago that I am less than six degrees of separation from one of my favorite players, Benjamin “Coach” Wade! And I’ve had my favorites through out the seasons, just like everyone. Okay, so I am and have always been a Survivor fan since it started when I was eleven.