Spending time trekking into the dense forests of Nyungwe in search of Chimpanzees was a thrilling, challenging, and ultimately heartwarming experience. The terrain there is steep, wet, and muddy. So much so that I fell several times each day — the kind of fall where the first thing that hit the ground was my back. Each fall was proceeded by instinctive grappling for nearby vegetation to keep from sliding down the slopes and then a quick check to my cameras, now covered in mud, to make sure nothing was broken. One afternoon, I was able to defy gravity and shimmy up a steep, slick, embankment to get on eye level with a troop of Chimpanzees patiently working their way through an enormous fig tree. There, caked in mud and actively ignoring my guide’s cautioning from below of my inevitable fall — I was able to capture the casual persistence of a lone chimp carefully selecting the perfectly ripened figs. For me, this image is so representative of our human experience – so much of life is spent in quiet pursuit of our own “figs.” Not grand moments, but small, deliberate choices that, over time, define who we become and what we achieve.