Every single castaway during the Survivor: Millennials vs Gen X press day talks about their plans going into the game, their personal strengths and weaknesses, their reasons for playing. But only Michelle Schubert tells me about the dragons.
We get into a conversation about the mythical fire-breathing beasts thanks to the hobbies section of her bio, which reads:
I love learning and reading and dancing. I seek beauty, adventure and adrenaline. I like nature, exploring, rock climbing, slacklining, and CATAN expansions. I also study dragons and the stars.
As a professional Game of Thrones nerd, I’m intrigued, so I ask her to tell me more. And she does. Michelle schools me on the subject of dragons, while also describing herself as a “skeptic at heart,” simultaneously connected to a greater power and passionate about possibilities she hasn’t yet encountered.
“I’m not afraid of new information and new circumstances,” she tells me with confidence. “I’m very inviting of the unknown.”
Click here to read Michelle’s bio, and read on for our chat:
Michelle: Hello, Josh.
Wigler: Hi, Michelle! How are you doing?
Michelle: I’m doing really good. How are you doing?
Wigler: I’m doing very well. Michelle, tell me about the dragons.
Michelle: Oh my goodness. Okay. Do you have pen and paper with you? Real quick?
Wigler: Yes.
Michelle: Draw a dinosaur real quick.
Wigler: Alright. Hang on. (Starts drawing.) Does it have to be a good dinosaur?
Michelle: No. Just a bad dinosaur. Real quick.
Wigler: Alright, I got it. He’s kind of a brontosaurus…
Michelle: Good.
Wigler: He has two front legs and two back legs, and kind of a hump back thing going on…
Michelle: Great. Now add wings.
Wigler: Okay.
Michelle: And now add fire coming out of his mouth.
Wigler: Uh-huh.
Michelle: What do you got?
Wigler: I got a dragon.
Michelle: You got a dragon. So, okay, the dragon thing is this: the word dinosaur was coined in 1852, kind of during the rise of paleontology. To take a step back and look at the whole world, even at that point, there were hundreds of what we call “dragon myths” from around the world. Lots of them for Native Americans, lots of them from China… name a country and they have dragon myths. It’s interesting; the things they have in common are things like all of the dragons come from eggs. Well, a mythical creature normally comes from a god who takes a magical baby and throws it against a rock and it shatters into a thousand dragons. That’s not the case. All of these myths say these dragon creatures… sometimes they flew, sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes they breathed fire, sometimes they didn’t. But all of them came from eggs. All of them laid eggs. All of them were some sort of pest. The big ones would attack livestock. We even have history, like Pliny the Elder. He was a Roman historian. You’ve probably heard of him. He wrote about flying serpents that would attack elephants in India. Even Marco Polo, who we learn about in school, we learn as fact about his explorations — but they leave out the page that says he wrote that there were dragons in China who the emperor was trying to train to pull his chariots during parades. (Pauses.) So…
Wigler: They’re out there!
Michelle: Or, well, they were. Some sort of large reptilian animals, probably dinosaurs in my opinion. We have ample evidence that suggests they were out there.
Wigler: How did you get interested in this?
Michelle: I love learning. I love reading. I love history. I love science. I like correcting things, and I’m a skeptic at heart, so when somebody says something and it sounds bizarre — or even when it doesn’t sound bizarre, honestly — I don’t like to accept it as truth until I’ve researched it. It gets me into weird subjects and interesting things like that!
Wigler: How did you get into the weird subject of Survivor?
Michelle: Oh my goodness. Well, honestly, I hadn’t really watched TV in about ten years, with the exception of when I was with friends or family or someone who wanted to watch TV. It wasn’t ever really my own choice. But I had a brother who loves Survivor, and his wife, actually. Whenever they would visit, they would say, “Michelle! Come watch this! You’ll love it!” And I thought it was cool. I thought it was awesome. You know, whenever you watch it, of course you’re wondering: “I think I can do those challenges. Oh, I would have known she was lying.” Things like that come to my mind. At least they do for me. Then a coworker turned to me this last fall — I share an office with a guy named Pete — and he turned to me and said, “Michelle? Have you ever thought about going on Survivor?” And I was like, “Um. I’ve thought about it. Never done anything about it.” And he went, “You know what? I’m going to tell someone about it.” He had an acquaintance who knew somebody who knew somebody — you know, that sort of thing — who was involved with the show, and he passed my name along. That got us kickstarted, and a couple of interviews and videos later, I ended up where I am.
Wigler: You’re a student. You like to do research. What have you learned about Survivor, in preparing for the show?
Michelle: Well, I know that the race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, or food to the hungry or food to the wise, or however the saying goes… but time and chance happen to them all. You need to come in as prepared as you can. There are so many aspects to the game: the physical aspect, the emotional aspect, and then there’s the chance aspect. All you can do is your best. I’m going to use my skills of reading people and connecting with people in a genuine way, my skills of being as much of a physical competitor as possible, and I’m going to pray that chance goes in my direction.
Wigler: You just mentioned praying, and reading through your bio, I know your faith is very important to you. How will that come into your experience with Survivor?
Michelle: In my life, I pray over just about anything. If I don’t pray over something, I feel like I should have. I meditate a lot. I have a lot of personal introspection. But as you know, prayer and meditation isn’t meant to just be on your own. It’s to invite the great spirit, who I would call the creator of the universe, to come and speak truth to some matter or another. I believe I have an advantage in that, in that I have talked with my creator. He has very literally spoken to me.
Wigler: And said what?
Michelle: (Laughs.)
Wigler: Or is it a secret?
Michelle: Well, it was twice that he spoke audibly. I feel weird saying this, because it’s not something I normally tell people. I don’t want people to think I’m crazy, and I don’t want people to think I’m a liar. But the first time he spoke… (Pauses.) You know, I don’t know if I can say it. But there are two times he audibly spoke, and a thousand times that he undeniably spoke without audio.
Wigler: What’s your comfort level with a game like this, known for being very cutthroat?
Michelle: Well, I mean, a boxer gets into a ring knowing he’s throwing punches, and knowing he’s probably going to get punched. At the same time, there are people who play in all sorts of different ways. Some people are lying and conniving and malicious people. But I think you can be deceptive without being malicious. I plan to take a strategic approach, and whether or not that includes deception? I don’t know how that’ll play in yet.
Wigler: A minute ago, you described yourself as “a skeptic at heart.” Will that serve you in a game like this?
Michelle: Hmm. Only because… only because I think if you’re not quick to believe something, it does give you a little bit more respect with people. At the same time, being able or having practice in analyzing all of the possible options and whether this person is telling you this out of truth or out of their own strategy, I think it will help on many other levels.
Wigler: What does “exploratious” mean? It’s one of the three words you used to describe yourself…
Michelle: It is! Exploratious. It’s kind of what it sounds like. I love adventure. I love exploring. I love discovering. I’m not afraid of new information and new circumstances. I’m very inviting of the unknown. And in a playful way, too. It’s a fitting word. I might have made it up.
Editor’s Note: Michelle’s bio has been revised since the interview. The three words she now uses to describe herself are “hungry, hungry, hippo.”
Check back every day for more Survivor 33 pre-game interviews.
PREVIOUSLY: Michaela Bradshaw
TOMORROW: Chris Hammons
Josh Wigler is a writer, editor and podcaster who has been published by MTV News, New York Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Comic Book Resources and more. He is the co-author of The Evolution of Strategy: 30 Seasons of Survivor, an audiobook chronicling the reality TV show’s transformation, and one of the hosts of Post Show Recaps, a podcast about film and television. Follow Josh on Twitter @roundhoward.
Survivor: Millennials vs Gen X premieres on September 21.
Continue to the next page to read Michelle’s bio.
View the original at Parade or follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Google+