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Survivor season 44 is set to premiere this week and will feature a new batch of contestants as they compete for the grand prize and the title of the next "Sole Survivor."
One of the contestants set to compete in the upcoming season is Matthew Blankinship, a Google software engineer from California. As part of his job at Google, he works on security and privacy automation.
Tune in on Wednesday, March 1, at 8 pm ET on CBS to watch the season premiere of Survivor season 44.
Meet Matthew Blankinship ahead of his appearance on Survivor season 44
The upcoming Survivor season 44 cast member is 27 years old and from Albany, and currently lives in San Francisco, California. The contestant is a graduate of Oberlin College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science in 2018. While in college, he was a campus tour guide as well. Matthew likes to describe himself as joyful, empathetic, and persistent.
He started his career working for Amazon Lab126 as a Software Development Engineer for a year and a half, before moving on to his current occupation at Google as a software engineer.
According to Matthew, he used to tell everyone who would listen 10 years ago that one day he was going to be on the show. While he would always chicken out when it came to applying, he is now ready to wrap up this unfinished business and feels really excited about it.
In an interview with Parade, Matthew added that being on the show is like an internal struggle since he wants to prove to himself that he can do this “really challenging game.” He added:
"As a kid, I think I was a lot more afraid of taking risks and afraid of being in front of people or judged by people. And I think I've grown a lot. But this will be the ultimate test of my comfort with discomfort."
The Survivor season 44 castaway stated that he was introduced to the show by a girl he really liked while in school. His friend found the show awesome and insisted that they had to watch it. Matthew has been watching the show regularly since then, and it was a dream of his to be on the show.
One winner that he really identifies with is Yul, as he thinks it was “awesome” to see a part Asian man out there do so well on the show. He added that Yul inspired him to be on the show as he was one of the people he saw on TV and felt represented.
The Survivor season 44 castaway added that he had to learn the hard way that things don’t always work out the first time around, explaining:
"It's tough to put a lot of yourself into something. I've auditioned for bands, or I've applied to colleges or applied to jobs, where you put a lot of yourself into this, and put a lot of your hope on how your life will be on this thing. And then they reject you, and you fail."
Tune in on Wednesday, March 1, at 8 pm ET to watch the season premiere of Survivor season 44.
