It took Kristin Flickinger 26 years to get on Survivor. Now she’s a queer fan fave

This story originally appeared on Them.Stepping onto the beach in Fiji, Kristin Flickinger was finally living out a decades-long dream. The Idaho-born crisis manager has been applying for Survivor since the middle of the first season. “It feels correct,” Flickinger tells Them of finally being cast for season 51. “Honestly, 26 years is a long time to do anything, and I have had a 26-year Survivor journey before I was even on the show.”What kept Flickinger in the process was faith that it would finally happen. “I didn’t sit around for 26 years hemming and hawing and hoping Survivor would come. I lived knowing that it would come,” she shares. While we can’t know what happens once Flickinger and her castmates begin competing today, she says the experience itself lived up to her expectations. “I spent a lot of time over the years thinking about what it would be, how incredible it would be to be out in Fiji to be on Survivor. What I thought matched up very much with the experience. It was incredible,” she says. Flickinger spoke to Them about finally living out her dreams, and what advice she’d share for anyone wanting to apply.You’ve been applying for Survivor since the middle of Season 1. What do you remember about the first day?There was a moment when we were out there and it was the first day and we were stepping onto a giant ship. It broke my brain because I’m a student of the show. I flashed back to season one and the ship they were on, and to season seven on Pearl Islands when they got thrown off a ship in their street clothes for the first time. I was like, “Wow, I am in this legacy. I’m part of this surreal adventure.”What do you think was different about this attempt compared with your past applications?There are some things that get said all the time by the casting team. “When it’s the right time, it’ll be the right time” and all of those things. I’ve been really angry about those statements for a while, believing them.