December 3: Disgrace

In 2003, Osten Taylor cast as one of eighteen castaways on the seventh season of Survivor. He was just twenty-seven years old when filming began in Panama and he lasted 19 of the 39 days of the game. An equity trade manager from Somerville, Massachusetts, Taylor was a force to be reckoned with. He began the show weighing 205 pounds and he was pure muscle. He was athletic, smart, and ambitious, but in the end he was a complete loser.

Survivor: Peal Islands was the reality show's seventh season and never in the history of the game, did it have a quitter. A contestant that went through the application process, paid for flights to interviews, put a job, family and friends on the back burner to be on America's favorite reality program only to quit before getting voted off. Hundreds of thousands of people apply to be on the show each season and no one ever even thought to call it quits until they were forced to resign by their peers. No one, that is, until Osten Taylor.

Since Taylor cried his way off the island, the show has had seven other quitters. Considering that it's in its twenty-first season and there is an average of eighteen castaways per location, eight out of three hundred and seventy-eight isn't that bad; unless you've applied to be on the show nine times like I have.

When I first saw Survivor, I was seventeen-years-old. At the time, you had to be twenty-one to apply. A friend I work with turns twenty-one tonight at midnight and she's excited to finally be able to legally purchase and consume alcohol; most minors think this way. For me, when I turned twenty-one, I was excited to finally be old enough to apply to be on the show. Since then, I have submitted my application and video through the mail and gone to four open casting calls. I've never missed an episode and it's been the subject of multiple 365 Days posts. I would give anything to be on the show.

I can't even begin to describe how irritated I become when a cast member quits. Not only do I feel cheated out of an episode of blindsides and backstabbing, but someone that was selected over me didn't even want to be there. Although I'm aware how slim the chances are for me being selected to participate, there is still a tiny bit of hope with each application I fill out. I keep my phone a little closer for the following weeks and check my email more often. Being on the show would really be the adventure of a lifetime for me, and because of this, I loathe the quitters. Every applicant is at home watching them quit and we're all thinking the same thing: Why did you even apply?

Osten Taylor was the first. He surprised everyone when he did it; not because he was the first to quit, but because he was so big and athletic. He quit because it was just "too hard" and he was losing too much weight. Various reports have been released stating he had infections and injuries that made it difficult for him, but the show had been around for six seasons! It's clearly spelled out all over the application that it's a tough gig. He had to have known what he was getting himself into.

Of the eight quitters, Jenna Morasca has the most legitimate reason. She left her mom who had cancer to be on the show and while filming, she had a gut feeling that her mom wasn't doing well. She quit the show and flew home just days before her mom died. That's freaky and bizarre. I don't consider Jenna a quitter like I do the other seven. I have absolutely zero respect for the one's that quit because they "couldn't take the elements anymore." If you want to win a million dollars while bundled up on your couch, you better start buying scratch-offs.