Sitting upon a wooden log, his two competitors anxiously sit beside him while the jury casts their final vote. As he awaits his fate, he takes one final look around the scene before him: a fire pit, a host and a jury. 

Then reality hits. 

Suddenly, what felt like hundreds of crew members rushed before him, pizza and champagne in hand. As Nick Wilson stared at the scene before him, he realized he may have just won season 37 of “Survivor: David vs. Goliath.”

It wasn’t until six months later, at the reunion, that Wilson’s realization was confirmed. He officially won the title of  “Sole Survivor” and his life changed forever.

However, roughly 15 years earlier, Wilson was a mere student at the University of Kentucky majoring in political science.

Wilson described living at the University of Kentucky as stepping into a completely new world, stating that he had moved on from his hometown of Williamsburg, Kentucky, to embrace a modern world different from his small hometown.

As a student, Wilson said he had to balance the fact that the rest of the country had developed around his small town, leaving them behind in the past.

“My first semester at UK as a freshman my car got towed like three or four times,” Wilson said. “After growing up in a small town, I could not comprehend that you can’t just park wherever you want at any time.”

While at UK and working to become a public defender, Wilson said he had another thought in the back of his mind: a dream to go on “Survivor.”

“I applied every year for a long time, for probably six or seven years,” Wilson said. “I was just chasing my dreams.”

As the four years at the University of Kentucky progressed, this aspiration gradually diminished. He said his “Survivor” dream became increasingly unrealistic with each passing day.

Consequently, Wilson said he focused on his work as a public defender in Eastern Kentucky.

When Wilson was a kid, his family had little to no money. Wilson said families in Eastern Kentucky rely on public defenders to support them through legal trouble.

Therefore, when he started as a public defender in McCreary County, a town over from Williamsburg, Kentucky, where he grew up, Wilson said he wanted to represent his own community, the people who grew up like him.

According to Wilson, if he had been arrested at 18, he would have had a public defender. If his parents had been arrested, they would have had a public defender. He said it meant everything to be able to help “the people in his shoes.”

“I get to become the public defender for the people who grew up just like I did,” Wilson said. “I could help others around the country or around the state, but still, it meant a lot to me to go back to exactly where I was from.”

From this experience, Wilson said he learned lifelong skills that helped him succeed not only in life but also on “Survivor” and as a house representative.

Through practicing public defense, Wilson said he learned how to “attack a problem,” to jump in headfirst and to effectively problem-solve. 

However, he said the biggest lesson he learned from public defence was empathy.

According to Wilson, learning to understand and empathize with his clients and his “Survivor” castmates helped him see people for who they truly were. He said people are not plain or simple, they are complex and have unique feelings and experiences.

“I’m not a block of wood and these people ain’t blocks of wood neither, we are people,” Wilson said.

After several years of being a public defender, Wilson finally got the call to be on “Survivor” in 2018. He said excitement and dread filled his stomach as soon as the call ended.

According to Wilson, even though his lifelong dream was about to be fulfilled, he was terrified that every milestone he had worked for would disappear.

Thoughts of “Would I have to quit my job?” filled his anxious mind, but relief took over soon after as his employer promised him his job, post-show, no matter the outcome, according to Wilson.

With his anxiety soothed, Wilson said he was able to focus on the game at hand and to take each lesson learned through public defending and put it into his survivor strategy: his social strategy.

“At the end of the day, it’s a game played by people. As strategic as you wanna make it, it’s still people,” Wilson said. “I still at my core, feel that ‘Survivor’ above anything is a social strategy.”

As soon as his feet hit the beach, Wilson said he was locked into the game. The camera crew disappeared, leaving just him, the host and his competitors.

“When you were on this show, you were actually in another world,” Wilson said. 

Wilson said he worked each day to accomplish his dream,however, while on the show Wilson said he tried to treat each player like a real person, not an advantage, to move himself further in the game.

The motto “people ain’t blocks of wood” carried Wilson through his 39 days in the jungles of Fiji while on “Survivor.”

“A lot of people can go on ‘Survivor’ and want to play a board game. They want to play a game of chess and I did too,” Wilson said. “But I have to play a strategic game. I have to play a game that people are gonna respect, but I don’t wanna make people mad and burn them because it’s not just a chess game.”

Understanding people is complex, which Wilson said was his key to victory. Wilson said that taking this idea to the final day of “Survivor” pushed him over the edge, causing him to flip many jury members to his side.

After his 39 days in the jungle concluded, Wilson said he came home with a new idea of humanity. 

Reflecting on his upbringing and current life, Wilson said he finally realized just how blessed he was.

“Growing up in poverty here (Kentucky), I know I had a lot of struggles, but then seeing even just how the Fiji people live,” Wilson said. “‘Survivor’ gets you back in touch with the reality of how blessed we are in this country.”

Without “Survivor,” Wilson said he doesn’t know if he would have learned the lessons he did on the show: humanity, perseverance and strength. Wilson said he has become the person he is now by taking each lesson he learned from public defense, “Survivor,” and most importantly, the University of Kentucky.

According to Wilson, each step in his career has brought him to where he is now, as a house representative for Kentucky, the same state that raised him.

“I’m just trying to make it a lot better for Kentuckians . . . I just want to do the right thing, I like thinking about it as I’m not a politician. I’m a legislator,” Wilson said. “And my time at UK definitely is what got me here.”