Michelle Yi

After surviving 24 days of snakes, starvation, and no toilet, 23-year-old Michelle Yi has one more major feat to overcome: finding a job. The University of Cincinnati Fashion Design graduate was one of 19 competitors on the CBS hit show Survivor, which took place in Fiji and had its season finale Sunday, May 13.

Finished with her fifth and final year at the school for Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, Yi is trying to decide where she wants to go post-graduation.

"I'm kind of not decided on whether I want to go to Manhattan or San Francisco," said Yi. "I really enjoy the lifestyle San Francisco offers, but then I also really enjoyed New York. So we'll see. I kind of fly by the seat of my pants. I'm focusing on the short term for once because graduating's such a big thing."

Now that the most recent season of Survivor has come to an end, Yi is free to talk about anything and everything that happened in Fiji.

Yi, who outlasted more than half of her fellow cast mates, was on the island for 24 days out of the 39 days of the competition. She was voted off on the April 12 show, becoming the third member of the final "jury."

Given the unexpected twist that caused her to leave the game, Yi handled it with surprising grace.

"You go into the game knowing that it's not necessarily going to be fair," she said. "Even though in my case it's particularly bad, you kind of know that they're going to pull something on you, no matter who you are."

Instead of badmouthing people or exclaiming how unfair the game is, like some of the game's previous competitors, Yi was still smiling and saying what a great experience it had been for her.

"My mom taught me to keep a really positive attitude all the time, and it really gets me through a lot," Yi said. "Obviously I want to make the best of my experience and there's no sense in being all sour grapes and grumpy about it."

Yi, who is an enthusiastic camper, lusted for the game to be played with the bare minimum of luxuries, the way it's supposed to be. She was happy after the third "regroup" of teammates, they arrived back at camp to find all of the previous luxuries were completely gone.

"Going to the bathroom in a hole in the ground is not a big deal to me," said Yi.

Instead of choosing soap, toothbrushes, or clean underwear for her luxury item, Yi wanted to have a bandana collection she designed for American Eagle when she co-oped for the company. She designed 20 bandanas for the 2005 "back-to-school season" and said she wanted to have them "because they are practical and good for showing off." Unfortunately, for Yi, the contestants didn't receive their luxury items like contestants did in seasons past.

Since Yi is a competitive rock climber and avid yogi, her friends were not shocked to find out they would see her on a reality show about strength and perseverance.

"It didn't surprise me that she was on the show… it was just out of the blue, but it was something that I wasn't surprised about her doing," said Ann Firestone, a professor at DAAP who had Yi in class.

Firestone recalled having Yi in her draping class a few years ago when Michelle was a pre-junior.

"I got to witness her physical transformation from a small, perfectly-portioned body to someone who has a climber's body: big strong shoulders, back, arms and legs." Firestone said. "It was interesting how she fell in love with climbing. I'm sure it helped her chances on Survivor. It made sense that she would do well on Survivor because she was in such good shape."

Even though Yi was in great physical condition at the start of filming, it was hard to deal with the distress of not being able to eat or keep hydrated.

"I was amazed that I could do it because you don't realize how much your body can take," said Yi. "You really feel like you're going to die because you've never experienced something like starvation, lack of sleep, or just being so malnourished, and you never know how far your body can go, and it's far. Your body can go real far before you die."

Since she was so malnourished and dehydrated, it's a wonder how she is still able to get up and participate in the challenges.

"It's a lot of adrenaline. I'm just super-competitive, so when it's time to compete, you just want to win," Yi said. "It really does give you a sense of accomplishment, but it's something that I would never want to do again. It's terrible."

Yi noted the second biggest struggle while on the island was the paranoia. Not knowing who might be plotting and when she would get voted off.

Yi was very supportive of Earl Cole, who outlasted the other contestants to win the $1 million prize, and said her jury question at the end of the competition was designed to help him. "He lived the hard life on Ravu, and he was a master strategist," said Yi.

Yi and Cole remain good friends, and she is planning on "paying him a little visit" in Los Angeles.

Yi believed even though she was no longer in the game at the end, she still held some power.

"Just because I'm on the jury doesn't mean I'm useless," she said. "I can still sway the game and try to get the results I wanted."