Last night was awesome. I don't even know how to start it. Long story short, I met one of my idols: world famous evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. Holy shit.
This guy is known and wanted internationally for his knowledge and secularist ideals. I love this guy, and last night I actually met him.
He came to my college's campus for a public interview and I got tickets, one for me and one for my buddy Thomas. Tom and I share Dawkins as a personal hero, so we get along well because of that. He's also an atheist and he's a fun guy, so we share at least the former attribute. Very finally, he's black, which is great because I don't have many black friends. Don't ask me why.
Anyway, I got him a ticket as well but between you and me, it fell out of my pocket they day I got it. So, between you and me, I took my ticket, scanned it, and made a counterfeit to replace the one I lost. I hope nobody gets me into any trouble because of this. Although I faked one, it was essentially a replacement and not an extra one, and I certainly didn't make a profit off it. It was for Tom.
Anyway Tom and I get there and we get good seats despite misinformation about where the event was, and then the man comes into the room. I'll be honest, I wanted to squeal like a I was a teenage girl in the 60's meeting the Beatles. I was actually, literally, entirely in person, looking at Richard Dawkins, watching him walk to the stage, get up on it, stand for a second, smiling, and then sit down.
And then I heard his voice. Holy shitballs, I heard his voice, IN REAL LIFE! And then, and then--this is probably the most amazing part--I got to talk to him. Not just talk to him, I got to ask him a question. I tell you, the whole time I was waiting to get to the microphone set out for questions from the audience, my heart was pounding. I literally could not stand still. I kept shifting my weight and looking around, practicing what I'd say in my head. I like to think I pulled it off well. I sez to him, I sez:
"Professor Dawkins, I first want to say you're a huge inspiration to me and I really enjoy watching you on Youtube--" [pause for laughter] "and I would like to ask you 'what is your favorite color?' and 'what are your thoughts or viewpoints regarding evolutionary biology and the presence of homosexuality in humans and others animals?'"
Then he answered that, but then I forgot what he said because I was so excited to been talking directly to him and him talking directly to me. Good thing I recorded the whole thing. Then after he gave his answer, I said "Thank you, keep on truckin'," and peaced out. I felt real good about that.
Then he signed my book AND my bud Thomas got a terribly blurry picture of me standing in front of him. I wish he had had the time to shake my hand but they were moving people through real quick. It's a pity he was too busy to talk even. Nonetheless, I saw, listened to, spoke to, and got my book signed by one of my heroes. I gotta tell you, I'm lucky to have seen some of the people I have, Dawkins being the second person from the Internet in particular. The first was Matt Dillahunty, whose hand I did shake.
I don't know what else to say, all that just made me so happy.
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