Dr. Sagan

This may have been the pinnacle of my nerdiness in high school but I apologize for nothing. I had the truly awesome experience of attending a lecture by Carl Sagan at the University of Buffalo when I was a sophomore in high school. At the time of this lecture I had only read one of his books (Cosmos, probably the most famous) but had seen a number of episodes of his Cosmos television series and was definitely a card carrying Saganaut. As I recall the lecture touched on a dozen or more topics, including of course space travel, life in the universe, man's place in the universe, our future, etc. and I remember how easily Dr. Sagan fielded audience questions and delivered quiet, confident answers that just made sense and demanded attention. It was certainly an event that solidified my interest in astronomy and science.

After the lecture my friend and I decided to really geek it up so we headed backstage to see if we could actually meet Dr. Sagan. He was back there and while he didn't stop to speak with anyone, he stopped long enough to autograph our copies of Cosmos. Like I said, the pinnacle of my nerdiness.