Jane Goodall

Wow. Just wow. I just had the experience of a lifetime.

Jane Goodall is the biological scientist in charge of groundbreaking research on chimpanzee behavior in Gombe, Africa. Today she spoke at Duke University to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the research enterprise. And I went! It was hugely amazing!

My class has been reading Jane Goodall's autobiography as we head into our biodiversity unit. It was cool to already know some of the stories she told, but there is no comparison to reading a book as opposed to listening to her talk. She is just an excellent storyteller and the amount of love she has for her "work" is very apparent.

It was just so amazing to be able to see her and her speech was extremely inspiring. I highly encourage everyone out there to find out when she will be near you (which she surely will be as she travels more than 300 days a year) and make sure you get tickets.

Jane Goodall took a fall down the stairs two weeks ago. Luckily, she wasn't hurt too bad and she only suffered from a broken arm and a black eye when it could have been much worse. This means that she could only give fingerprints and no autographs, but I stood in line to get my school library book "signed." We also got a picture with her and I told her how inspiring her speech was. This was just a great experience that I will remember forever.

~B-Man