Quick ahead to about two years later. I used to be additionally pursuing one other dream—writing kids’s books about animals. Whereas researching pangolins, I stumbled throughout Wild Tomorrow Fund. After extra in depth analysis, I got here throughout their volunteer pictures journey! Animals? Pictures?! To say I used to be thrilled could be a gross understatement. It felt too good to be true. Personally, I had at all times dreamed of visiting Africa, however to have the ability to assist animals, the neighborhood, AND study extra about pictures by precise professionals alongside different likeminded people?! This needed to be some kind of algorithm rip-off; the web will need to have learn my thoughts and fed me this sensible alternative like once I’m searching for child bathe presents for a good friend after which magically start receiving advertisements for diapers. However no. It was REAL. And with the loving help of my husband, and a few of my life financial savings…I used to be about to make a dream a actuality with Wild Tomorrow Fund.
Every thing in regards to the journey was past what I imagined it might be…and extra. Merely respiration within the earthy damp air after a rain my first day there, was sufficient to make me fall in love with South Africa. However I believe essentially the most profound expertise of all was being within the mere presence of all these majestic animals, animals I had solely ever seen in particular person behind zoo partitions. Right here they had been residing free and wild, in their very own pure habitats and on their very own phrases. The roles had been reversed. I used to be now the stranger on their territory. The sheer greatness of all of it; seeing elephants within the wild for the primary time won’t ever go away me, for instance, and simply trying on the seemingly countless expanse of land and sky was a humbling expertise in and of itself. I felt small, however I felt a right away and intense connection to the earth, to the animals, and to the individuals there. For the primary time in my life, I felt like I actually understood my place within the circle of life. I do know it sounds corny, however there’s a purpose why that film and hit music resonated with us all. From watching the busy little dung beetles working so arduous to roll the proper ball of dung to coming throughout cheetahs mendacity down subsequent to a kill; bellies full, exhausted after their hunt of impala; to witnessing a tower of giraffe strolling in the direction of you within the tall grass, interested by what you’re, and what you’re doing… I felt a profound sense of connection to all of it—a belonging, actually. I hope to by no means lose that feeling, that true sense of understanding. This expertise made it abundantly clear to me, with even stronger conviction, that we wanted to revive the steadiness between nature and humanity once more. Now could be the time for people to make adjustments and restore our wild locations and biodiversity on earth. I didn’t know learn how to actually change into a part of the change myself till I launched into this mission with Wild Tomorrow Fund, and for that I’m grateful. I felt, for the primary time, like I used to be a part of the answer and that gave me an enlightened sense of hope.