User blog comment:Wafflefreak/16th Castaway Competition: The Search Is On!/@comment-26485526-20171112061608

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Name (Age): Travis Koch (29)

Hometown: Pierre, South Dakota

Occupation: Public Defender

About Travis (Sorry this is so long): If you would have told Travis a decade ago that he was going to be a lawyer, he would have laughed in your face. That all changed however when he was unable to find a job with merely a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of South Dakota and a friend encouraged him to take the LSAT (Law School Admissions Test). Believing that he had nothing to lose by taking the test, he did take it, and he was accepted into Law School at USD after his first attempt. Once in Law School, he felt he gravitated towards Criminal Law and he soon became passionate about representing those people that are simply unable to afford an attorney.

Travis grew up in a rather large family. He was the 3rd of 5 children and was also the youngest boy. Travis has always been an extremely social and outgoing person, and recalls being the class clown growing up. Travis' family is Roman Catholic, and he recalls being quite involved in his church his entire life. He is still involved in his local parish, both as a reader and as a Eucharistic Minister (passing out either the bread (body) or the wine (blood)). In fact, Travis is good friends with his pastor. The two of them hang out at least a couple of times a month, and Travis always makes sure to have him bless his apartment at least once a year. Although Travis is proud of his faith, given that the Bible teaches love and forgiveness, he has never understood how people use it as a basis for intolerance.

He joined his school's debate club in grade 7, much to his siblings' relief as Travis "has always seemed to enjoy arguing." Travis has also been a huge history buff his entire life, so debating quickly became one of his favourite activities growing up. He also proved to be a very skilled debater, winning multiple debate tournaments since he started high school. Even after high school, Travis still stayed involved with debating as he has volunteered his time to judge many debate tournaments for high school students. Given his schedule, he hasn't judged a debate tournament in a couple of years. But if the opportunity arose, it is something he'd like to do again. Travis currently has a girlfriend named Emery that he lives with in addition to their two Siamese cats, Felix and Luna. If he wins the money, he plans to marry Emery and start a family.

Strategy (Sorry this is so long): Right off the bat, Travis plans on lying about his occupation and saying that he is a middle-school history teacher, which is actually his oldest sister's occupation. Travis isn't afraid to lie during the game saying that he is well aware that he will have to go to confession when it is over. Travis also knows that since he is a very social and talkative person normally, if people know he's a lawyer, he believes that he'd be instantly branded as either a threat or as untrustworthy and quickly targeted. Prior to starting the game, he grilled his sister about exactly what she does in order to prepare himself for questions he may be asked about his occupation. His goal at the start of the game is to have people thinking that he is one of those "cool teachers" that look to be more of a friend than a teacher to his students.

Travis hopes that early on, his social and outgoing personality will shine through and get him into a good alliance. He plans on sitting back and observing in the early stages of the game, then playing hard strategically come the merge. If Travis feels that there is a move that needs to be made though, he won't hesitate to fall back onto his debating skills in order to persuade people to vote his way. Travis doesn't care about the labels "Hero" or "Villain" in Survivor as he's not going to think about how the public views him. He is merely going to play the game looking out for only one person at the end of the day, himself.

Travis won't specifically seek to flirt with people during the game, but knows that there is a possibility that he might get flirted with. If this happens, he plans on being honest about the fact he has a girlfriend, although he will hope that the person flirting with him likes his personality enough to want to keep him in the game.

Anything Else: Travis stands at 5'9 and weighs 183 pounds. He has a fairly muscular build, which is most noticeable at his legs and butt as he used to do a lot of track & field, cross country running, and rowing in the summer, as well as curling in the winter. Although his schedule has gotten much heavier now that he is an official Public Defender, he takes pride in maintaining his physique as he goes to the gym regularly in addition to playing golf in the summer and curling in the winter as a way of relieving stress.