Petrovsky Family Moves to a "Drier Climate"
I was born as the youngest sibling of a family of four in Arizona. Why Arizona? According to physicians in the Southern US, those children who had asthma were directed to move to a "drier climate." Arizona was always the first choice (remember, it's a "dry heat"). Perhaps the biggest irony here is that in 2010, Phoenix was listed as one of the "most allergic cities" in the US due to the vast agricultural growth of fruit trees and the blossoms of flowering plants.
American Southwest & Eastern European Values
While the Arizona population was small, and the geography untamed, my family brought with them a distinctly Eastern European set of values. I remember my father always telling me that his desire for his children was that they do more with their life than he did. Here were the choices: 1) Physician 2) Attorney 3) Other "Professional" or 4) Sales. My father was a seasoned Insurance Salesman that blossomed into a successful, independently owned organization, Pension Funds of Arizona (who's motto was: Build Your Nest Egg). Suffice to say that none of the four siblings chose any of the preferred occupations. I "defaulted" into #4 more by accident.
Kansas City, Missouri - Secondary Education
Living in Arizona for 18 years was the limit for me, and when it came time for college, the University of Missouri @ Kansas City was chosen more by accident than through any derived process. As a late teenager, the choice looked like Medicine. I did not, however, envision eight years of schooling. I decided instead to apply to 6-year accelerated programs (those which combined a 4-year university degree with an MD program). At the time, there were about half a dozen. Applied to all - only one accepted me. Missouri was very different than Arizona. During my first winter (one of the worst in Kansas City history), I remember the television stations warning citizens to stay indoors due to temperatures below -20 degrees.
Medical School and Becoming an Adult makes for a Poor Combination
While I enjoyed the exciting medical cirriculum and actually liked the concept of becoming a physician, I enjoyed the freedoms of college more. While I'm sure there are some who can manage the rigors of medical school along with learning how to be an adult, I wasn't one of them. All of the distractions of my youth tumbled together like a hurricane, and four years later, I came to the realization that I didn't really understand who I was, or what I really wanted to do. As you can imagine, my family was crushed. Leaving medical school still remains as one of my top life regrets. Words of Advice - First go to college, THEN decide what you want to become.
My First Sales Job: The Sharper Image, Kansas City, MO
With no real job experience and no family nearby, I considered moving back to Arizona. However, a new store was being built in the Kansas City Plaza Shopping District and I knew it well. For years, I had drooled over their beautiful catalogs offering expensive items that nobody really had any business to actually buy. Before the store even opened, I had applied for a sales position. On opening day in 1988, myself and four others sold in a "fishbowl" retail environment with some of the most affluent customers across Missouri and Kansas. The prize sale was something called the "Getaway Chair." This was the first massage recliner, finely crafted in leather (but made in Korea). For a mere $2,500 the chair came with "white glove" home delivery. If you sold one of these chairs, you were part of the elite. In the first three months, I sold three "Getaway Chairs." I was on my way.
Zookeeper at the San Diego Wild Animal Park
If I knew then, what I know now, I could have seen the passion I had for animals going back through my childhood. The zoo was one of my favorite places to visit. We had an annual pass to the Phoenix Zoo, and my mom and I would visit frequently. I remember the chimpanzee show in the early 1970's. While I cringe in horror today as what we did to those poor apes, back then, it was breath-taking. They would dress the chimps up in these business suits and have them ride around on unicycles. The crowd ate it up. Anyways, after a few years at the Sharper Image, I moved out to San Diego for a change of scenery. I had always wanted to live in California and my oldest brother had a place on the beach there. Soon after the move, I had my first visit to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. On the monorail, you encircle hundred acre open enclosures with herds of hundreds of deer, antelope, gazelle, buffalo, giraffe and rhino. I was hooked and determined. That's the job I really wanted. In 1991, I became a Mammal Zookeeper at the Park and spent the next three years waking up each day in pure bliss. To this day, there will never be any job quite like it and consider myself very fortunate indeed. Among many fond memories, I include: feeding prunes to the gorillas, sharing in the birth of a white rhino, bottle feeding twin cheetahs, shoveling bufallo crap, moving large herds from one exhibit to another, being gored by a Fringed-Eared Oryx, and helping hundreds of orphaned hoof stock survive in the Animal Care Center.
Starting a Family & Career
While working as a Zookeeper, I met my wife Heather (she was working in the gift shop), we fell in love and got married. It was around this time that we both realized that our dreams for a family included her being a stay-at-home mom, and me having to find a career that would pay more than $13/hour. With sad regret, but the shining future ahead of us, we moved to Phoenix, where much of my family still calls home. I began my career in another area in which I had real passion: computer technology. I had one of the first PC's ever built while I was in college, the IBM XT, and the machine was always in the process of being upgraded. I remember the first color graphics card. I recall using dial-up modems on bullitein boards. I remember some of the first role-playing games, providing complex coordinates to "move around the universe." I started as a salesman at a retail computer shop, building custom PC's with the first CD-ROMs. I remember watching Marin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech at the store as we gathered around in awe of the first PC capable of showing video. I had the bug. I helped businesses create the first Local Area Networks using big, thick coaxial cables. I remember Windows being released for the first time (on 23 3.5" floppy discs).
Professional Career Synopsis
For the past 20-years, I've grown up in the Information Age, specializing in Network Integration (switches, routers, wireless, security, IP-Telephony, data center technologies, video and information applications). Over the past 15 years, I've worked for Cisco Gold Partners (organizations that resell Cisco System technologies), managing sales teams, performing certified systems design, technical project management and general operations. I am a Cisco Certifed Network Associate (CCNA), Cisco Certified Design Associate (CCDA), Project Management Professional (PMP), and hold a dozen specialty certifications in data center, voice, storage and wireless technologies.
Family Life
I am proud to be the father of two boys about to enter their teenage years and to be married to a patient, loving wife who puts up with my Type-A personality. As with my profession, my family also lives in the Information Age. There's a laptop in almost every room, and we're proud to be an Apple/Mac family. My oldest would prefer to be posting videos, searching the web and chatting in the blogosphere rather than anything else. I am indeed fortunate.
Skepticism, Secular Humanism and the Scientific Method
My biography would be incomplete with mentioing my love of science. As a part of my lifelong passion for all things biological, it took me some time to bring this concept to the forefront of my life. When you understand science and the scientific method, the world looks very different to you. Who we are and what our place in the cosmos represents is an important part of how I derive meaning from life. I try, each day, to bring this realization to my children, family and friends. I strongly believe that if humanity had a stronger grasp on the laws of nature, and the incredible things we already know about the universe, much of the world's political and religious violence would fade.