Ben Higgins' The Bachelor journey begins Monday, January 4 on ABC, and the show's star has a lot to say about what fans can anticipate this season.

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Shortly after ABC revealed Ben's 28 bachelorettes, the handsome small-town guy from Warsaw, IN, who currently resides in Denver, CO, participated in a media call through which he touched upon topics personal to him as well as hilarious tidbits -- such as what exactly a "chicken enthusiast" means.

In the recent interview, Ben shared his insecurities, desires, fears, expectations, and more. Below is a portion of what he had to say. To read more, click here and here.

It's becoming sort of common place that former Bachelors and Bachelorette show up on other seasons to take another shot at love. Obviously, this season we have Becca Tilley and Amber James competing for you, but was there anyone during casting that you really hoped would step out of the limo? 

Ben Higgins: No. You know, I think I did not want to have any preconceived notions about the women that were going to come, the women that were going to be willing to come or that I wanted to come.

I wanted to come into this very open to any woman who has the desire to come and try to see if this can work. And I guess I could say I was not disappointed in any way with the women that came, and I also was not frustrated that someone didn't come. 

What kind of advice did your family give you prior to the start of filming? 

Ben Higgins: That's an interesting dynamic, is you know, how do your friends or how do your parents or how do your families give you advice as you enter into an experience that very few people have done?

My parents, I think, and my friends even, they came about it in a very similar way. They came about it with the foundation of love and of hope and of trust, and I think those are three things I tried to keep throughout the whole process, is to continue to stay hopeful, continue to trust -- not only myself, but these women and also the process -- and to love along the way. 

Now that the season is wrapped, is there anything you regret or you'd do differently if you could go back? 

Ben Higgins: Looking back now, I think the experience in general puts you in places that -- it was hard, and there's not always a clear-cut answer for what's right and wrong. And I have to be confident in my decision. I have to be confident. I could say this. I guess my answer to that question is, looking back now, I am confident I stayed true to the man that I want to be, that I am. 

I feel like these women were worthy and definitely [deserving] of just the best experience possible, like I wanted them to have this experience and feel like they were getting the most out of it. And yes, I honestly can't look back and say I regret it. 

Ben, do you have any must-have qualities that you seek in the woman you want to marry? 

Ben Higgins: You know, I think when it comes to the dealbreakers, I want to be very open. But some of the things that I look for, I would really like to find a woman who has a similar faith as I do. I think that'd be important as we raise a family, as we move forward in life.

So, faith is important for me.  Also, somebody that offers grace, because I think I'm going to need a lot of grace in my life. I think we can all say that sometimes we're not the easiest to deal with, especially if you're going to live life with somebody.

And so, it also takes a little bit of patience, but I really just wanted to get to know these women, get to see these qualities and see how they played out, and see what I was feeling as I got to know these women.

Are there any places you'd definitely wanted to travel to this season?

Ben Higgins: I do like to travel. When this whole thing starts, we all sit down and we can kind of talk through all the ideas of places and different ideas of dates and all that. I think I was just excited. I'm just, you know, I do like to travel and I know that any place that we're going to go to, we're going to do it well.

We're going to see things and see different cultures and different people. That's what I would want. And I wanted to look back on this and be just really grateful for the experience in general as well as, you know, where it took me. And I think it took us to some great places. 

What do you think you learned about yourself doing this? 

Ben Higgins: Yes. Jeeze, a lot. 

Too much for this call probably? (Laughs)

Ben Higgins: Oh my God, yes. I mean, I can sit down with you over coffee and talk about this forever. It's such a great thing. It really is, and I hope as everybody watches, my desire was to be myself and to be vulnerable to feel things, to allow myself to feel things -- to just be real in every situation, and I was. And as a result, you know, I grew as a man.

I remember I was in middle school and I had on my bathroom mirror a saying that said, "I want to be a better man tomorrow than I was today." And I think with this experience, it offers a lot of opportunity for that. It's not always easy, but it's something that definitely helped me grow as a person. 

Do you have a strategy for social media when the show is airing? Because I know there can be a lot of bad stuff as well as good with Twitter, Facebook, etc. How are you going to handle that stuff? 

Ben Higgins: Definitely, yes. I think we saw that with [Kaitlyn Bristowe]. People can be just downright mean and I have no doubt that I'm not going to make everybody happy. Honestly, that's not my goal. I think I wanted to be treated myself. I think I wanted to be treated to, like I said, my faith, my friends, my family and to the man I want to be. 

So, when it comes to social media, I think some of those things do hurt. I don't know what people are thinking sometimes when they write stuff and they think, well, maybe, we don't read it. Well, sometimes I do and I know past Bachelors and Bachelorettes tend to as well.

But you know, I'm confident enough in myself to be able to I think most of the time overlook all that and stand firm in my decisions and stand firm in who I am. Not without, still trying to grow and mold as a person, but people can say what they want. 

So, I'm just curious what your favorite part of the whole process was. Could you tell me if it was traveling, the people or even going back home? 

Ben Higgins: What was my favorite moment? Hmm. You know, I think just in general if I could speak on kind of an overwhelming moment was being in Warsaw. It's pretty, it's really, it was really great to be back in the place that supports me and that I have a lot of great memories at.

I was raised there, and being back there and sharing this experiences with them was definitely not only a very surreal moment, sometimes an overwhelming moment but also just a moment that made a lot of my worlds come together. It was really cool for me. 

Would you say this is the craziest season yet in regards to the different entrances and first impressions and all that? 

Ben Higgins: You know, I've been a fan of the show but I haven't necessarily gone back and realized every entrance and every limo entrance in every season before this. I was really proud of the women for the way they came out this season. 

They did a great job. They made me laugh. They made me smile. They made things very interesting, and so, in my mind, it was maybe not the craziest but definitely the best limo entrances ever. 

Was this "the most dramatic season" yet?

Ben Higgins: You know, I can't say this would be the most dramatic season. I really think that it was, for me, it was just very, very real and there was a lot of great things, but I don't know if this is the most dramatic. It's hard to say. 

Is that because you didn't really know too much about what was going on behind the scenes?

Ben Higgins: Well, not necessarily behind the scenes. It's because you know, it's mostly what was going on a lot of the time amongst the women, just like when I was on The Bachelorette.

I was one amongst men, and maybe the Bachelor or Bachelorette doesn't always know. You know, sometimes we get filled in, but it's just when somebody wants to bring it up to us. So, it's hard to say what was going on in the house at all times.

Click here and here to read more from Ben's The Bachelorette interview as we rapidly approach Season 20's premiere.


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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