The [audition video](http://vimeo.com/77539427) begins in black and white.

It’s nighttime, and the streetlights are shining into the camera. In front of them is senior Brendan Giljum, 21, who speaks immediately.

“This is gonna sound really cheesy, but you know those dreams you have that are so good that you don’t wanna wake up from them?” he says.

He’s wearing a hoodie, or maybe a jacket, even. He pauses to think, staring at the street as he crosses it.

“The past three years since I turned 18,” he says, “every one I’ve had, that I wake up and I’m like, ‘Ugh! I wish I was still asleep,’ I’ve been in ‘Survivor,’ and I’ve just been kicking ass in it.”

He’s staring at the camera now, smiling at it as his delight slips free and covers his face. He is calm.

After rambling about his friends being in the dreams, the video transitions into another setting, one that is now in color. Giljum is sitting in his kitchen, wearing a gray suit, a paper white dress shirt and a red polka dot bowtie. He sits back in his chair and introduces himself to the camera, to the viewer, speaking confidently.

“Let me tell you why I would be the best man for ‘Survivor,’” he says.

####“I’ve learned a lot of things from the show and my time watching it.”

Brendan Giljum’s dad Phil has been watching the show since “Survivor: Borneo,” the initial season that aired in 2000. The show was outdoorsy; he liked it and watched every episode.

The second season aired in 2001, and Phil watched that, too. This time introducing the rest of his family to the show — son, daughter and wife. Phil thought his son would enjoy it. After all, Brendan Giljum had risen through Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts with his parents as his leaders.

Soon Thursday night gatherings became regular, and, after that season, they watched the third. Then the fourth. And the fifth. And sixth. And seventh. And, quite rapidly, the Giljums had raced through every season, watching each episode live unless a family member couldn’t make it. (That’s what DVR was for.)

Brendan galloped through each season beside his family, taking breaks for when he left for college, so he could watch episodes when came home. He didn’t know what happened when he watched with his family — that as he grew he absorbed his parents’ firm, selfless virtues, and that the more he watched his family’s beloved program, the more he loved it himself. He asked Phil for a DVD of the first season, asked Phil for a buff to wear around his head; noticing not who he was becoming, but who he was not, and that he sought to grab at it and pull toward it, hurry toward it, to make it his own.

####“Rule number one: You’ve gotta have a good social game.”

Phil is convinced that Brendan is drawn to the show because his personality matches it well.

“He likes (‘Survivor’) because he likes to be competitive with himself and challenge himself,” Phil says.

Brendan has been challenging himself since he was young, especially in high school. He worked to perfect his grades and challenge his fitness and beliefs.

When coaches cut him from two sports freshman year of high school, he tried to learn how to play racquetball. In college, he’s won three All-American awards so far and is the club team captain.

When he decided he wanted to go out of his comfort zone at the end of high school, he went on a service trip. In his senior year, he raised $1,500 and went to Mexico to build houses for “people who lived on trash heaps,” he says. In January, he’ll be going on another trip.

He’s continued that kind of perspective of life with even his scheduling. Brendan tries to schedule as much as he can into his free time — a reason why he’s been so busy, such as being the president of Theta Chi — and not waste opportunities he say.

“I like to live life to the fullest and use all the gifts and blessings I’ve been given,” he says.

####“Rule number two: You have to be good at making fire.”

Brendan keeps a small, blue crate that is not much larger than a book in his room. It rests on the top shelf of his closet. In it are relics of his past, memories of yesterday to reach tomorrow’s dreams. There inspirational letters from high school, a “worn down, dirty thing you hang on a door that says, in Spanish, ‘Home is Where the Heart is,’” a St. Louis Cardinals toy and a script.

He wrote the script with Phil two years ago because, like Phil said, it’s easier to do things with a plan, something you can follow. But Brendan didn’t follow it. He focused on school and put it off, storing it in his crate. He returns to the crate when he needs inspiration.

Last month, he returned to the crate.

He filed through its contents, staring at the script. Later, when he scrolled through his Twitter feed, he saw a post from Jeff Probst, the host of “Survivor.” Producers were extending the deadline for applications.

For a hopeful guy like Brendan, it didn’t seem like coincidence.

“I’m a realist,” he says. “But I’m also a big believer in fate.”

####“I am your next sole Survivor.”

As soon as Brendan submitted his application to be on the show, the website loaded a confirmation message regarding the next stage in the process, an in-person interview. Brendan used his black iPhone to snap a picture of it.

_Thank you for submitting your application to Survivor casting. Your information has been sent to a casting director. We will be in touch._

It’s been two weeks since he took that photo, and they haven’t been in touch. It’ll take time, though because of the masses of fanatics who apply each season.

If those fanatics are accepted and Brendan isn’t, he doesn’t know if he’ll apply again. He’ll be busy, starting physical training school and whatever else he’ll be doing.

“I would really hope that I would keep applying,” he says. “That’s the dream.”