Hello jury members! I honestly did not think I'd be here at the final, but I'm here! I'm grateful that I made it all the way to the end, and now all I can hope is that you guys can hear me out here. So I will break my speech down into five things: F16 - F12, F11 - F7, F6 - F2/3, Strengths and Weaknesses and Summary. I have a summary in case you can't get though my big speech, but if there's something you can't see in it, you can either try looking though the whole speech or asking me in your jury speech.
Final 16 - 12 (Weeks 1-5)
So looking at the cast coming in, I didn't see myself getting to the end. I knew almost every single person on the cast, but I figured I'd be out during the jury phase because I felt I would've been targeted at some point. So I just tried to talk to a few people that I did know and try to spark up some conversations with people that I hadn't talked to in a while for the first 2-3 weeks. Now bare with me this game took a bit so this may not be in order. Heather was like the first target from the gate. Me and her had our issues, but this game she was acting like it never happened which confused me. Lexi I knew wanted to please the house, but not do something to piss someone that she had talked to off. I just told her it likely wouldn't matter if they go up because they may not have many allies, and the fact she (Jennifer) had a history with some people in the game. So the both went in succession. Also I did try talking to Aras in week 2 due to being nervous he could attempt to nominate me then. Week 3 I also did this with George since I could never read him when it comes to playing with him. At this point, Me, Hannah and Lexi made an alliance together since we knew we'd help each other out in this game. Matthias asked me to save him, but I had already did it without hesitation. I also went to the penthouse at week 2 I believe and I'm not 100% sure who sent me.
At this point, I will admit I got too comfortable and stop giving as much effort during week 4 when I got inactive a bit. If I'm not mistaken I had put other things first during this time and that was something I wish I hadn't done. Sometime during week 2-4 maybe, Devon did form a group with me, Lexi and Hannah. everyone besides Devon were cool with having another alliance member with us but however, I had doubts due to Devon having a history of doing me dirty twice before this game, so I had my guard up to him. I did however try to campaign for Andrea to Hannah and Devon(Since Lexi was at the penthouse) to stay at that moment because having her here, I knew she'd be there for Lexi, meaning I'd have an extra number in Andrea. That way I'd have a total of 3-4 solid numbers (because of course Devon was a sus but he was seemingly loyal then), along with possibly having Matthias to vote with me if I would've needed it. When Week 5 happened, Devon was so suspicious of Dan, and I was fine with him leaving because I felt as though he never put effort in our conversations (Though I can't exactly talk but whatever). So when he left I think he kinda went for Devon and then left and it was pretty funny, but that was a relief then.
Final 11 - 7 (Weeks 6-9)
At this point, my convos with Erin would fall short and take long due to me having a couple of responsibilities on my plate. And also I admittedly wasn't feeling much of a spark between us at the time. So when she came and nominated me and Hannah, it woke me up because I started slacking weeks before. I was supposed to go home this round but however, Hannah refused for me to leave over her since she had been more inactive than I had been. So I took that to campaign my case to stay and hope that people would listen to her. People actually kept me mainly because of Hannah pleading to leave. However, the next week I was nominated because I was able to avoid going home the first time. I heard one of my allies tried to vote to evict me, but it wasn't enough. The following week I talked to the duo but not enough to bond, however this week was the start. They did nominate me and Lexi, and at this point me and Lexi discovered that Devon was throwing our alliance out there, but he was the one who created it so we had to make sure to the point to make him regret it. He played me twice before, and I refused to let it happen a third time. Me and Lexi talked to the duo and they saw the light. And from there, we talked more and realized we didn't really have anyone left on our side, so we were ready to ban together. Also I talked with Luca and we ended up making a group with Jerry and Lexi to have some ground in this game. Lexi did end up going home and it was sad for me, but I had to keep trucking for Lexi. Also Matthias had left the game and I was sad, but later someone told me he tried voting me out so I wasn't sure how to feel afterward. I had lost three allies in two weeks, and was probably about to lose hope.
From there, the bond between the duo grew stronger and stronger from here. Me and Erin did talk a little more after this, and discussed issues during the first time I as nominated. I wanted Devon gone at this point because he was clearly playing people against each other and playing a snaky game and seemed to upset Lexi before she left so I just wanted him to go before he got me. So I made a deal with Erin that if she could get him out this round, that the very next week if I was HOH I wouldn't nominate her. Me and her had two different ideas of the deal, but this is what I meant. So the plan was to put me up again to backdoor Devon and take him by surprise and shake his world and it worked. His moves caught up with him and he ended up evicted unanimously which made me happy because I could avenge Hannah and Lexi, while also getting back at Devon for once (sorry Devon :P) I did not tell anyone because I didn't want the plan ruined, but I did tell Sardreas after he was evicted.
Me and the duo got close to the point they told me they would not put me up because they felt I deserved a break from being nominated, so they wanted to find a way for me not to be nominated that week. I kept pushing for them to nominate Erin and George. Erin because she had nominated me and I was nervous she'd either win or still try to get me out soon so we could get her out of the way, and George because I honestly couldn't get past his answer to me during Hannah's eviction week when he didn't give me a clear answer as to whether he'd save me or not. I felt like I knew I couldn't count on him from there and wanted him out. The duo did not want to nominate Erin because they felt she had their back and trusted them which worried me because people still seemed to want Erin around still. However I got them to agree to nominating George, which was good for me so I could get a target out. I was ecstatic that neither nominee won veto and that the duo won pov so they could keep it the same and from there I kept trying to campaign for George to go, and thankfully he did finally otherwise I'd probably would've been gone sooner or later.
Final 6 - 2/3 (Week 10-13)
When I won HOH for the first and only time I was psyched, I was shook because at that point I didn't win a single comp, and to my knowledge the deal between me and Erin was off. I also wanted to pay back Andreas and Sarah for keeping me off of the block by making sure they didn't touch the block neither. I used this week to get even closer to them, since I was safe I decided to be honest with them and tell them everything going on in the game. How people were trying to get me to nominate them, how people were trying to make alliances with me and etc. And they opened up and told me the same thing. I felt even closer to them then now that I was able to tell them about everything, and they told me how happy they were that I was being honest so at this point they were my #1 to me. And we thought it was perfect because we felt nobody would've suspected it. I told Erin I was nominating her, because she told me to tell her so if I was going to.
I nominated Aras and Erin. Erin because I was threatened of her in the game, and Aras because I was close to my other allies, and almost everyone was saying that he was telling everyone about everything that was going on so those were my two best and easiest choices for me. When Erin won PoV, I felt I was going to be in danger in the weeks coming up. To my surprise, the duo comes up to me, and lets me know that Erin might actually save Aras because she thinks that she will be safe. At this point, I felt like I wasn't really able to count on Jerry or Luca to win comps because Jerry usually got low scores, and Luca would abstain, so I felt his mind wasn't really in this game anymore. I nominated him with the sole purpose to WAKE UP in the game, not for him to get upset with me, I never thought he'd go home against Erin. Erin was evicted unanimously, and I was SHOOK that it happened, but grateful that at this point the three main people I wanted to go home went out in succession. Luca actually wins HOH and I'm happy for him, but nervous he'll nominate me for nominating him last round. He let me know he was doing it ahead of time but that Aras was his target. I of course told the duo, which at this point we were down to get to F2/3 together and stick by each other. We had even discuss voting each other out in final 3, if need be. They were also scared they could be nominated so they made sure to win veto. So when they did win, they let me know they would love to save me since they had my back and I was thrilled. Jerry was auto nominated and we decided to talk it over with the pros and cons. The pros of keeping Aras is the fact we wouldn't have to worry about Jerry/Luca as a duo, but the con would be he's usually good at comps. The pro about keeping Jerry is that he'd likely not win the next comp, and the con would be he'd save Luca. We sadly decided to evict Aras due to fear he'd win the next HOH.
Me and the duo had a 2/3 chance of winning veto and felt we had it guaranteed, but Jerry won and the duo was shook to the core, while I was just in disbelief. Jerry came to me and told me he wasn't going to nominate me so I could decide on who to send home. He was trying to grill me a bit to see who I'd send home. At first I didn't give a straight answer, but however I said the duo because I felt he'd love to hear that so he didn't get nervous because I'm sure he'd want to get Luca to the end with him, and I felt it'd be stupid to go with them in the final 3 and risk them teaming up on me. The duo won POV and it had me auto nominated, but they swore to me they were keeping me in. I had waited all day but they kept their word and evicted Luca so I was happy to be in a Final HOH yet again, after I made it in POD Org. I had already decided in my mind if I did win Final HOH that I would've in fact voted to evict Andreas and Sarah, I did. We agreed we wouldn't be angry if we had to do it, so I was preparing myself if I had to. I was disappointed with not winning either part, but I was hoping the duo would pull it out or something because I didn't know what Jerry would do. However, he thought about it and evicted the duo. I really was upset because we worked together for weeks and I thought I was prepared but I wasn't. But I took their advice from there and tried to stand strong and not get discouraged at yet another final.
I know, this is very long so if you couldn't look at it all I'll summarize it.
Strengths and Weaknesses
I feel my best strength was strategical. I was able to survive after my near-eviction round, and stay all the way till the end. From there I was able to make deals and talk to people to get things to put me in a good position even if I was nominated, and able to give reasons why this person should go home and how it'd benefit their game. I was able to decrease my target as the weeks went on and have allies that had my back to trust me and be there for me like I was for them. And my weaknesses were the fact that I was terrible physically because I couldn't win anything but one HOH, although I did come close to winning a few comps. And my social wasn't that great either as I obviously went inactive for a bit, and I couldn't keep much of a conversation with people in the game, and I'd try to fix that but fall short not too long after and I do deeply apologize to the people I did that to, I wasn't the best at keeping up with my messages and I'll take the blame for that.
Summary
My start wasn't the strongest, and I slacked off a bit but after my wake up call, I was able to effectively survive every following week by gaining allies, and suggesting who to target most of the time and why. I gained traction by getting rid of my three main targets (Devon, George and Erin) and had a group surrounding me who trusted me to make decisions and to have their back every round. I sided with the right people who I was able to get to the final 6-4 with and have bigger targets over me so I wouldn't go home. I went from being an underdog till completely flipping the script when I got the chance and that's why I feel I deserve to be the winner this season. I didn't need comp wins to stay in the game, I had a couple of people trusting me in the game, and this is what I feel helped me get all the way here till the finals. Thank you to the jury if you read all of this, and thank you to the hosts for casting me! If the jury has any questions, please feel free to ask them if you feel you need a question answered or something cleared up. And good luck to you Jerry! <3