Orange dust coats our faces and notebooks on our routine morning game drive in the bush. We’re 8 days into a 4-month program studying wildlife conservation and political ecology in Tanzania. I’m 20 years old and increasingly aware of the amount of uncertainty I just signed myself up for.

We’re learning about field study methods and wildlife population sampling when our Tanzanian professor gets a call on his radio. He smiles and motions for the driver to turn. There’s a buzz among the students – what about the zebra we’re supposed to count? We round a corner and there he is – the first male lion I’ve ever seen in the wild. King of the savannah and a dream encounter, he lounges on a rock, completely unbothered by the swirling dust and bewildered students. The professor smiles and says, “if you see a lion, screw the study.” I learned a different kind of lesson that day – that embracing the unexpected brings a kind of fulfilment you didn’t know you needed.