What would you like to do in this career?” I said, “Well, I’d like to make a contribution and I’d like to be the best that I can be.” And I said, “I’m a little concerned about whether I can gain that at the Kansas City Zoo or another smaller zoo, if the sacrifices are gonna be worth it to move to a larger zoo in a large metropolitan area.” And he said to me, “Well,” he says, You know you can be a frog in a small pond and someday you’ll be a big frog in a small pond or you can go to a big pond and be a small frog in a big pond and someday be a big frog in a big pond.” Well, it’s spelled out. Okay, from it I’d say, well, if I want to reach some visions and goals, not only for myself but for my family, then I do need to move to an opportunity that would allow that. And I got the position and I’ve never looked back ’cause it was being associated with an institution like Philadelphia was wonderful. Not only was the collection good, the culture there in terms of curatory, the curators, what they had done, what you could learn, the association of that and the museums in town and you just get thrown into it. I went from a keeper uniform to a white shirt and tie and it was just a whole different thing now. There was a lot of personnel issues I was behind the curve on because it was a union zoo. So, I had to learn. In fact, the first thing that was given me was here’s the union contract, read it, memorize it.
