This season on Survivor: Gabon, nobody expected Susie to make it very far, especially her.  She ended up surprising everyone, though, positioning herself as a crucial swing vote in several important tribal councils and flying under the radar all the way to the final three.  While Susie didn't struggle with the harsh conditions, she didn't struggle with keeping her opinions (and strategies) to herself.  At times, it almost cost her the game but she hung in there and won two extremely important immunity challenges.  Susie spoke to BuddyTV in an exclusive interview after Sunday night's finale.

Below, you will find the mp3 and transcript of the interview.

What made you want to try out for Survivor?  What made you want to do this?

You know, I've been a fan since Borneo and probably about three, four years ago, I told my husband... my son was about 10... I remember telling my husband, "I really would love to try this.  It would just be fun."  Just like that, just a little simple statement.  He said, "There's no way they're going to call you.  You're wasting your time."  I took offense to that.  I was really hurt by that, when he said that to me.  I was like, "I can't believe you just said that," and I thought, "You know what?  You watch.  I'll try.  I'm gonna at least try."  Oh yeah, well you're just wasting your time.  So that was my initial point to try and show him that they'll take me.  I can do this.  Then second to that, knowing that I could be a little bit more selfish.


Are you an outdoorsy kind of person?  Do you like being out in the wilderness?

Yeah, my husband and I used to go camping.  I took my son fishing all the time.  I'm one of those people that likes to go walking and when I walk, I'll walk anywhere from like 4-6 miles.  I like being outside.  I like going down to those camps so I'm definitely an outdoorsy person.  Being out there in the elements didn't actually bother me.


Did you end up surprising yourself by how far you made it in this game?

Yeah, I did!  I'm usually more of a potty mouth, you know?  I usually just put my foot in my mouth, as you see, telling Corinne I was gonna vote her off but that really did work for me 'cause I know she was gonna tell Marcus and Charlie.  I did surprise myself.  It was hard for me.  I had to hold back and be careful of what I said.  I was and it really did help.  I thought, "Just fly under the radar, Susie.  Let everybody else play cheap and tell you which way they wanna vote."  So yeah, I was surprised that I got as far as I did although I think, when the merge came, winning that fire immunity was huge.  It saved me for another 3 days and then, obviously, the last one, building the stacked house.  If I wouldn't have done that, I guarantee I probably would've been out.  I did surprise myself.


I've been a fan of the show since the beginning some pretty bad final tribal councils but last night goes down in history.  How did you handle the stress of that final tribal council when everyone confronts you?

I don't know.  People can say what they wanna say.  Sometimes your emotions can get the best of you.  You can feel a little hurt or sad but I grew up being at the bottom all the time and having people criticize me and say some bad things to me.  Being at the final tribal and the way people talk to me, I just try to let it roll off my back and put it into perspective.  It was just a game.  You're the one who has to own what you say.  I almost feel worse for the ones who did say horrible things than I do myself.


Is there a moment this season that you're most proud of?

Probably the fire.  I am so proud of myself for hanging in there, getting the fire.  I was like, "Holy smokes!"  I'm amazed at myself for that one and I'm really proud when I built the house at the end.  That brings home my family because my parents could never afford to take us to the movies or anything like that.  Part of our entertainment was: my dad would give us 3-4 decks of cards and we would build houses in our living rooms.  It was like a challenge between brothers and sisters.  We would do that.  So I was building that house and I felt like my brothers and sisters were there and that was a really good moment for me.  I was really proud of the fact that as I was building it, I'm thinking they were helping me build it.


Now that Survivor's over, what's your life going back to now?  What's your life like?

I'm gonna go back to work.  I mean, I work at a school, where I work with a special needs boy.  I also have a salon.  I work in a shop.  I have a book that I was writing and maybe now, I can focus on it and really get that done.  I gotta be selfish and take more time for myself.  I'm not very good at being selfish that way.  I'm gonna do it when I go back home.  I'm gonna take time to finish the book I'm writing.


- Gina Scarpa, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of CBS)