John Elderfield: [noun]- my idol

This dude is the coolest person I have ever seen in real life and that's saying a lot because I met Jean Chretien one time but that's a story for another day. 

So here is how this situation came about:
Griselda Pollock (another idol, look her up), at a lecture: On Saturday, October 9th, the University of Leeds will be hosting their annual alumnist lecture.  Students are welcome to come.  The speaker is John Elderfield, the chief curator for MOMA.
Liza (to Hannah): Wanna go?
Hannah (to Liza): Yah sure.

I don't think at the time it fully registered that Griselda said CHIEF CURATOR OF MOMA.  When I told people I was going to this lecture I was all like "Ya, I think he worked for MOMA or something? I dunno."  For those of you who aren't entirely sure what MOMA is, it's the Modern Museum of Art in New York City and has been referred to as the most influential modern museum in the world.  For those of you who don't know what a curator does, they buy art for museums.  For those of you who don't know me but like to read this blog, buying art for a living seems like some sort of fairytale, super fantasy, dream job to me. 

So on Saturday, October the 9th, I'm walking to my school to go hear this guy speak and I think I realized then how cool Mr. Elderfield might be.  The other kind of cool thing was that at this lecture there were maybe 10 students and a whoooole lotta alumnists, some who graduated in the 40's.  The reason why that is so cool is because Carleton, the university I go to in Canada, wasn't even a university in 1940.

The man who introduced John Elderfield listed his numerous accomplishments which wikipedia has done a lovely job of summarizing here.  If you clicked that link and read the article, you'll know I was already more or less dumbfounded by my new idol.  And then he started speaking.  He talked about his university days of being a fine arts student and painting a mural on his dorm room walls. He talked about how he studied at Yale.  He talked about convincing the board members of MOMA to let him buy certain pieces of art work.  He talked about the time he hung out with Bob Dylan.  He talked about his travels.  He talked about philosophy and art and many other impressive and cultural things.

After I picked my jaw up from off the desk, I realized that I FINALLY have something to tell people when they ask me what I'm going to do with my art history degree.  The answer? I'm going to be John Elderfield.