This book is the reason I love science. Before reading this I was incredibly unsure of what I wanted to do, where I wanted to be, and how I imagined my future.
My junior year of highschool I was discussing with a friend what we wanted to study in college. In order to brainstorm ideas he encouraged me to write a list of everything I was passionate about or wanted
to learn about. On that list I wrote “Gorillas.” I don’t remember what got me so interested in gorillas, but I always have had a love for primates and their behavior. He had been reading a book called, “Why Zebras don’t get Ulcers” by Sapolsky and knew that he had done research with baboons; So i ended up getting “A Primate’s Memoir,” written about Sapolsky’s experience in Africa living with a tribe of baboons over many years. I fell in love with his experience and the thought that being in a field of science could still allow me to have an adventure-filled life! Now Sapolsky is a professor of neuroscience at the University of Stanford. After reading his book, I still had a desire to learn because I found his research interesting and the way he presented kept me curious. So i found behavioral biology lectures of his online and realized that my path had to go in this direction.
A completely unexpected interest of mine caused my whole perception of my future to change, and that is why this book is so important to who i am today.