On 22 April 2026, I was given the opportunity of a lifetime.

Back in January, I had taken a chance glance at an advert for a Norfolk Wildlife Trust event: Chris Packham, naturalist and campaigner extraordinaire, was visiting Norfolk to celebrate the charity’s 100^th anniversary. This immediately had me on tenterhooks - I had watched Chris for years on Springwatch, but the idea of seeing him in person, live, was an unmissable opportunity. After looking into it further on socials, I found that there was a youth panel of 16–25-year-olds interviewing him. Though I completely understood that the added maturity of being over 16 would be necessary to appear in front of so many people, I still felt a despondence that I was too young. Nevertheless, it would be a privilege to see him in person, and I resolved to get tickets anyway.

A couple of weeks later I received an email and, on opening it, was immediately flooded with a multitude of feelings. I had been invited to apply to interview Chris on stage in front of 750 people, despite my age. My first thought was: that is way too many people to talk in front of! But my second thought was: that's too big an opportunity to miss. And that second thought, after an internal battle that lasted some hours, dominated.

A few hours before the 'real thing', I was seriously panicking. No amount of immersion therapy (although it was very effective!) could fully prepare me for the evening I had ahead of me, and such a new environment left me feeling like a fish out of water. But now was the time for ITV and BBC interviews - the waves precursor to the later tsunami, in public speaking terms at least. However, I knew how I really felt about nature, and that assurance allowed me to speak freely about what I truly love: conservation. I walked away happy about what I'd said.

With this done, it was time for our walk with Chris. When he arrived, the encounter seemed very different from my previous experience of seeing him on TV: suddenly he wasn't an image from a camera hundreds of miles away, but an interactive part of my life. As our group wandered through the UEA campus, Chris kindly took the time to explain the subtle nuances of the environment around us. Where many would see just a forest floor, Chris sees an entire ecosystem, interacting and decaying to make new soil to support the next resurgence of life.

For the first half of the event I was watching off-stage, so I sat down and told myself to relax. Although a little tense, I was excited to hear what Chris and Patrick had to say. Before I knew it, Patrick was introducing himself and we were away! On came a series of poignant questions about conservation, with some equally poignant answers: from beavers to pet kestrels, the interview covered a considerable amount of ground. Above all, I was shocked by the pair's comfortable nature on stage - Patrick's seamless inquisition, without so much as a peek at a script, was complemented beautifully by Chris's intellectual flow of knowledge. The 90 minutes seemed to fly by (the antithesis of a football game) and I felt I had amassed only a tiny fraction of Chris's experiences of the natural world. But it gave the audience a delicious taster of what life as a 24-hour naturalist could look like, and that enticed me greatly.

During the interval, my two peers and I went to our 'safety room' to decompress. The minutes were trickling away quickly and I was desperate to burn off some energy, so I began to sprint around the lecture hall. Though completely discarding my dignity, I knew this would puncture my anxiety, and it was soon time to head back.

As Patrick made his introductions, we shuffled nervously to our seats and I again told myself to relax while I repeatedly scanned my notes. But, when the lights dimmed and the curtain rose, so did my fears to an extent. I felt oddly released now that I was in the moment - this scarily consequential event that had been looming for months was much less terrifying now I could look it dead in the eye. I strolled onto stage feeling far more confident, and this was boosted by such an attentive and smiley audience.

My second question inquired into how I can persuade my friends to care about nature as much as I do. We joked that I shouldn't judge my friends and that I was too harsh initially! Chris had clearly given this a great deal of thought in the past, and explained that we only need to bring 25% of people over to our way of thinking to change the world. And when I thought about it like that, stopping the biodiversity and climate crises seemed far more achievable.

Perhaps the most memorable moment of the interview came when we were reading out audience questions. I looked down at the paper in my hand and struggled to read out its contents without cracking up! But there, in front of everyone, I read, "I hear you collect chairs!" The subsequent punchline of "Why?" made cause for raucous laughter throughout the lecture hall. This brought to mind the primary school teaching that there is no such thing as a silly question, and an inquisition into chair collection solidified this heart-warming sentiment for me.

As I walked offstage, I was on an absolute high. But feelings of closure ate away at my stomach like altica beetles on willowherb. The realisation that everything would be normal again after this was saddening, but I knew it wouldn't be for long. Because as I said in my stage introduction, the career I saw for myself was filled with more opportunities to pour myself into a love of nature and tonight would be just the beginning.

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