SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!! STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN"T WATCHED THE FINALE AND ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED!!!!!!
I just watched Rob Mariano win Survivor. That's "Boston Rob" to those of your who are more comfortable thinking of him strictly as a character on a TV show rather than as a husband, father, and full, three-dimensional man. As Jeff Probst and David said, he just finished playing the best game of Survivor ever played. He was a hard worker in camp, a serious competitor in challenges, and a great friend. One of the toughest aspects of the game is that you can never make it to the end without betraying some friends and alliances, but Rob was able to do so without completely alienating the people he played with. You could easily base college courses in psychology on this game, and especially on Rob's play this season. I think Andrea pointed out one of the most important aspects of his game play. He consistently checked in with each person individually to see how they were doing, what they were thinking, and who was approaching them with other ideas. Rob made everybody feel important as an individual. That may have lost him some friends at the end of the game, but after more than 20 seasons, people should know what they are signing onto when they apply for Survivor. I can't get past that idea of making everybody feel important as an individual, though. Isn't that what we're all searching for in life? As a teacher, I want my students all to feel that they are important to me as individuals. This year I toughened up with my BC Calculus class. I pushed them harder than I ever have, and I lost several along the way. The goal was to get all students into the most appropriate class. Every year some students take BC Calculus when it really is not the best course for them for any of a large number of reasons. In the end, they don't do well on the exam and end up having to start from scratch in college. This year, I took the tough love approach and tried to get a few kids to drop down to AB Calculus. It is still an Advanced Placement course, and they are still eligible for college credit, but not for as much as if they had stayed in BC. The goal was for kids that could be successful in AB but not in BC to take the appropriate course and do well rather than to struggle in an inappropriate course. One negative result was that I got nailed on my teacher evaluations this year on the questions about how the teacher shows that he cares about your success. I believe I showed that I cared about their success by being so hard on them that they dropped down to an appropriate course where they could succeed, but of course, they aren't going to see it that way. In the end, I didn't make them feel important as individuals, and they nailed me for it on me teacher evals. I stand by how I handled them and still believe that I actually was considering what was best for them as individuals, but teachers, just like parents, often have to wait decades for their kids to understand why they did what they did.
Rob Mariano, however, made everybody feel important. Even when he got people voted out of the game, he made them understand that they had to go because they were too much of a threat. The most interesting part of Survivor is that dynamic of having to vote people out of the game while still getting them to vote for you to win in the end, and Rob mastered it this season.
This season was interesting because of other characters besides Rob though. Matt was a star. As much as I am a HUGE Rob fan, I was disappointed that Matt didn't win the fan favorite vote. This kid gets voted out of the game early on and has to spend almost a month on Redemption Island. For a lot of that time he was completely alone, trying to survive in the wilderness without even anybody to talk to. In my life, I have had a couple of times when I have spent a night where I felt completely alone in the wilderness, and it is ROUGH. Two of those occurred when I spent a summer in Germany when I was 19 years old, not much younger than Matt. My first night there, all the youth hostels in Berlin were full and I had to find a place to sleep after 36 hours awake. I ended up spending half the night asleep in the stairwell of a rundown apartment building waiting for the brother of the wife of the son of a friend of my mother's to get home so that I could beg him to let me sleep on his floor. (BTW He immediately agreed, but only if I would go down to the corner pub and have a beer with him first. Thanks for being a terrific host, Johannes!) The second night was in Hanover, when I was nearly out of money and ended up sleeping in a field behind an overfull youth hostel. Those nights were terrifying and life-changing. I have so much respect for Matt getting through such a long time on his own on Redemption Island! The Survivor message boards are very divided on Matt. He is an extremely religious young man who credits his longevity on the show to his faith. Many call him naive or misled. I'm not sure where I come down on that, but I really don't think it matters. He is a terrific young man with his heart in the right place. His Christian faith is what led him to that place. Is that faith misplaced? Who cares! It has resulted in his being a strong, caring man and that is what really matters. He inspired a lot of people with his strength on the show and has helped a lot of people grow stronger and more confident in their faiths. We all need to draw strength from somewhere. For some it is from religion, for some from family, and some from our own internal confidence. I don't care if that strength comes from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Tao, Hinduism, or Wicca. If it leads you to have enough confidence in yourself to get through extremely difficult challenges AND if it leads you to put others before yourself (which ALL major religions and most minor religions do) then you are on the right track. Much respect to Matt for the way he played this game! I hope I can be as strong and as selfless as he was when I face the challenges that lie ahead in my life!
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