I was working at a hotel front desk when I met Dr. Jane Goodall, my childhood hero. She stayed in one of our rooms under a false name but I found out it was her. I immediately got flushed and sweaty and could not focus on work. I had to meet her. So I sat down at the computer and wrote her a note about how I’ve admired her since childhood and how she inspired me to go into conservation and work with wildlife. I sent this note with the housekeeper to her room. A few hours later, she showed up at the front desk.

Now let me interrupt this story to tell you how shy I am. Like, very shy. You wouldn’t think it from my social media profiles, but I’ve got extreme social anxiety and one of my biggest fears is public speaking. Between that shyness and being completely starstruck, I blubbered my way through the meeting, making a complete fool of myself and wasting any chance of having a real conversation with her because I was so nervous. I had had so much to ask her and share with her, but all I could do was stand there staring at her, open-mouthed and teary-eyed. I did get one blurry cell phone photo with her and she told me, as my eyes filled with tears and I blubbered my apology, “if there are no tears in the eyes, there are no rainbows in the heart.”

As sweet as the meeting was, I felt incredibly dumb for that wasted opportunity and vowed to never do that again. A year later, I planned a trip to Thailand to volunteer with rescued elephants at Lek Chailert’s rescue center. Lek is the “Jane Goodall” of elephants, and has been rescuing them from their exploitative homes in the entertainment industry and logging industry for decades. Her goal is to rescue every elephant in the country from exploitation and abuse and to stop them from being taken from the wild, as there are only about 1500 wild elephants left in Thailand. She is the most well-known elephant rescuer in the world. And she just happened to be at the center when I was there, standing right in front of me with her equally impressive Canadian husband. Remembering my promise to myself to never waste an opportunity like this again, I took a deep breath, walked right up to her and conversed with her for over an hour. I just talked. And name dropped, as we know many of the same people in the conservation world. Turns out we had a lot to talk about! I was also traveling with a published photographer named Jennifer Ilene, whose photography work with animals is next level, and at the end of our conversation I asked Lek if Jennifer and I could do a private photo shoot with her elephants. My heart raced at asking such a forward question, but she immediately said yes! And so we were granted a 7am shoot with three of her sweetest rescued elephants, allowing the elephants to dictate the shoot completely, not touching them, leading them, or forcing them. It was truly amazing, and we got a number of breathtaking shots. Jennifer uses these shots to educate people about the plight of Asian elephants and other endangered animals around the world.

Because of the small number of elephants left in the wild, having the opportunity to be so close to these rescued ones was a blessing and a dream come true. I will forever be grateful to Lek for giving me this gift, as well as to myself for asking for it.

This is a true testament to what courage can do for us.