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'I'm just slightly disappointed in myself': 'Survivor Castoff Patrick: Post Elimination Q&A

CBS Local – Another episode of 'Survivor: Heroes v. Healers v. Hustlers' means another torch has been snuffed. We had the chance to interview the third cast off of the new season, small business owner, Patrick Bolton. Here's his unique perspective (as told to CBS Local's Adam Bloom and Samantha Bennet) on being the red head on the island and his initial reaction to being voted off.

Castoff: Patrick

AB: It seemed as though in tribal you were surprised and seemed a little bit angry about being voted off as rightly so. Are you still angry about being voted off as you were after the elimination? How are you feeling now?

P: Watching last night brought back all of the emotions. I was definitely so frustrated going home. I was really mad at Ryan and Ali - especially those two - and those were very true emotions. I was pissed to say the least. I thought Lauren was going home. As you could tell it was a shock to me and watching my facial expressions - it was not really expected. I don't take back anything I've said as far as my leaving interview. It was just rough - it wasn't my time to go.

SB: Lauren said she never trusted a redhead. How did you feel about that?

P: "I've never trusted a redhead in my life," those were the final words. It's ridiculous - it doesn't affect me or offend me. It's hard to get under my skin. It didn't bother me that she said that. I just think it makes her small-minded and makes her sound a little crazy. I'm sure there's plenty of things that I did - screaming and jumping around with crabs - it probably made me look crazy. It's just part of it.

AB: It seemed like you were having fun overall out there. It really did.

P: I was having a blast.

AB: Was it everything that you expected?

P: "Survivor" was everything I expected and more and I literally had so much fun getting the opportunity to do it - being able to meet the people I had met through "Survivor," the CBS crew, or anybody on the game. It's been a phenomenal experience. I would definitely take the opportunity again if it arose but I would not take it and joke around. I would literally be coming back to win a million dollars and go back home. That would be it.

SB: If you had a few more days on the island, what would you have done with your time? How would you have played your game differently?

P: If I had been able to make it passed the tribal I went home on last night - that was the first real experience as far as being frightened and the unknown of whether I was going home or not. The previous tribal - when Simone went home - I was not worried at all even though she definitely wanted to send me home. It wasn't something that worried me. This tribal - I was a little worried so I think I would have changed my game play coming out. I think I would have really taken a turn for the better as far as keeping more stable connections and not being such a live wire - or as many people would refer to me as a wildcard. If I could get passed tonight's tribal and make it to the next day - you see as the previews came out - there's a tribe swap. It would have changed the entire dynamic of the game, and I missed that by just one vote. It's very unfortunate that it's the way I went out. I definitely could have done better. So I'm just slightly disappointed in myself.

AB: You said you wanted to learn and grow as part of this experience - what is one of the most important things you took away from this experience? What was part of that growth for you?

P: Realizing to better understand the emotions of the people around me and being able to make better friendships - being able to understand everybody's thoughts behind me. I didn't see other people outside Lauren - I knew she was heated with me and frustrated - I wasn't trying to change that aspect and again, I thought she was going home so I'm not trying to build this relationship because it's just about to leave. Taking things away from "Survivor" - I feel like the overall opportunity and being able to get to experience living life with somebody on an island knowing that every three days someone is going to leave - it's something strange and weird about it. I definitely grew as a person just knowing and understanding my surroundings and better understanding the emotions of the people that are around me so I can help with "Survivor" sets and defend my life. "Survivor" gods got me last night.

SB: You said the emotional aspect - did you find that to be the hardest part about being on the island or were there other aspects?

P: I would not say that was the hardest part. The physical aspect of not having food was difficult for me. It doesn't show too much of me feeling exhausted - but there were many times where I was very exhausted from being in the heat - being slightly sunburned. Thankfully I stayed in the shade and didn't get sunburned too much. Having to go through that physical experience and not having enough food to really feel full and never feeling like I'm full of energy - obviously it did show so many moments of me with a lot of energy but that's not the entirety of my stay there. It's definitely something just being able to stay consistently mentally focused on the game - something else that I should have been able to do better at. There's a lot of things that I could have done slightly different that could have changed my game play. I just didn't take it seriously enough until right there at the end and it was too late.

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