Jane Goodall

Something awesome happened.

I met Jane Goodall.

Jane Goodall of chimpanzee fame. Jane Goodall, primatologist, conservationist, author, researcher, activist, UN Messenger of Peace. I mean, she's done so many amazing things in her life that I can't even list them all (you can see her Wikipedia entry for more).

I first saw her when she gave a talk to a packed auditorium at my alma mater, The College of Wooster, a few years ago. There were thousands of people there that night, and I never got a chance to speak to her. This time she was in Singapore and I was incredibly fortunate to be invited to a small roundtable discussion of wildlife researchers and professionals. There were only about fifteen people there, and because we ended up discussing something I know and care about (human-macaque conflict in Singapore), I actually had reasonably coherent things to say, although I think I may have gotten overly excited and run my mouth too much. But I couldn't help it. I felt like an eleven-year-old girl who just met Justin Bieber.

Holy smokes! That's me and Jane Goodall!

It was really, really cool.

Did I mention that I'm a finalist in the Singapore Blog Awards? And that you can vote every day? And that I could win a trip to Australia? No? I didn't think so.