By John Powell – GlobalTV.com

If there is one thing fans can take away from Josh Wilder’s Survivor journey it is that you should let nothing hold you back in achieving your goals and your dreams.

“You really can do anything you put your mind to. With all medical issues that I’ve gone through I never thought I could do this. This is my first time applying because I’ve been so good. I’m stable in my career. I’ve been watching this since the beginning and COVID kind of brought all that back up…I just want people to know that if you want to do something, go for it! I want people to know that you can persevere,” said the surgical podiatrist from Atlanta, Georgia.

Josh was born with Prune-Belly Syndrome which is a rare disorder characterized by partial or complete absence of the stomach muscles, failure of both testes to descend into the scrotum and/or urinary tract malformations. He also underwent a kidney transplant in 1997 and is a cancer survivor as well. Although he was experiencing health issues on the island and was in constant communication with the medical team, he refused to allow those problems to ruin his Survivor experience.

“Not having a stomach, I didn’t have a sense of hunger like everybody else. I was just getting weaker and weaker as the days went on. That’s kind of explains the grimace on my face. It wasn’t a mean face. It’s just I was not feeling good. My guts were hurting. I was struggling. I was passing out a lot on the island because my blood pressure would just drop too low…It was just a great experience that I’ve been able to even do this because I never thought I could growing up,” he said smiling.

Josh appeared to have the game well in hand early on. He was playing with his head and not his heart. However, slowly emotion began to creep into his game and it caused him to make mistakes. He admits his emotions made him take his eyes off the ball at times and that juggling logic and emotion was tougher than he thought it was going to be. He freely agrees that bringing his feud with Yam Yam to the merge beach didn’t do him or Yam Yam any favours. It actually put targets on both of their backs.

“As a surgeon I was taught to think objectively, not subjectively, I think I could have could have done that but once that vote happened with Yam Yam it took me somewhere. I just felt so betrayed because I wanted to work him so badly. That’s when I stopped thinking things through and everything just snowballed. It was a lot harder than I thought, for sure,” he said looking back on his game.

Although they had so much in common on the surface Josh and Yam Yam just couldn’t get on the same page. They did bond over their life experiences in many ways but they couldn’t unite as players. The funny thing is that Josh wanted desperately to work side-by-side with Yam Yam. In Josh’s mind they could’ve replicated so many successful alliances from the past. He would be the athlete that could win challenges which would compliment Yam Yam’s strong social game. Yam Yam’s one strategic move though put an end to Josh’s plans.

“When he betrayed me, writing my name down, I thought and reacted emotionally and he was discounted in my mind. I brought that up when we merged and I shouldn’t have,” he said.

Josh also had a rocky relationship with Carolyn. One minute, they were joining forces to take Sarah out and the next she was throwing him under the bus at the merge feast. Josh wanted her as an ally but she clearly didn’t want to align with him.

“When she got back from that journey everything changed with me and her. I wish it wouldn’t have. I was trying to bring her back in my side,” said Josh.

According to Josh, the merge was as chaotic and as tumultuous as we saw on television. It truly was like the first day on the island all over again with everyone trying to gauge the others, trying to bond with strangers and trying to forge a path through the game for themselves.

“There was so much chaos that was hard to put your finger on it and maybe I’m old school but I automatically thought that Ratu was going to stay together, Soka is going to stay together and Tika was going to swing to whomever because we were always like that, Soka and Ratu. I didn’t get the sense though that anyone was locked in. People were off talking to everybody. That day was just a wild, wild ride. It was a mess,” Josh laughed.

Even though he didn’t make the jury and won’t have a say in who wins this season of Survivor, Josh has his favourite to win and that choice may be a surprise to most viewers based on that player’s edit up to this point in the series.

“If I had to vote right now, I really liked Heidi. I liked her a lot. I think she’s playing great game. I didn’t get to talk to her as much as I wanted to on the island but knowing kind of what’s going on, I would give it to her hands down,” he said.

Despite the health and strategic challenges he faced on the island Josh would love to play the game again, maybe with a little less emotion and more logic next time around.

“I would love to do this all again,” he said hoping he gets that chance.

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