Michael Botnick
When I finished high school, I escaped from Montreal and went to Boston University for a fairly dull 4 years taking business administration (it ended with a combined MS and MBA). I did learn how much I preferred not being in Montreal (at least to live there), yet when ‘Uncle Sam’ informed me that even though I was a Canadian, if I chose to remain in the good ol’ U.S. of A. I would have to register for the draft (remember the Vietnam War?), I high-tailed it out of Dodge and went back to Montreal, cursing all the way, since I had to turn down a dream job with Outboard Marine Corp., working in South Carolina on the new engine launches (pardon the pun), and ski boats—my passion at the time.
I worked in manufacturing for a year (well, 11 months to be exact) and finding it definitely not to my liking (too left brain for me) migrated to advertising (of which I knew less than nothing—I always was a good bullshitter). That eventually took me to Toronto, London, Paris, back to Montreal and Toronto, and then to Vancouver, where I was exposed to “la-la-lotus-land” sensibilities. And here I am to this day (not without a few “to’s and fro’s”, mind you).
Eventually, advertising and marketing gave way to retail rescue (buying failing companies and revitalizing them, then selling them), and in particular, marine retailers (boats, motors, trailers, accessories and so on). When I sold the last company, several years later, I decided to get out of it all. A good friend of mine suggested that I teach, but I didn’t want to teach business, so I ended up going back to university to learn something altogether new—Sociology. But you can never escape your past—and since I had been active in gay issues, and in HIV/AIDS prevention for a long time, I veered towards epidemiological sociology and HIV/AIDS issues—which in turn led me to also work at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS as a researcher.
Finally got a new MA and a PhD, and stayed on at UBC for at a spell, teaching Intro Sociology, Qualitative Methodology, and my favorite, Human Sexuality. I became the ‘enfant terrible’ of the department, tackling such taboo subjects as prostitution, gay and lesbian studies, transgenderism / transvestism, bisexuality, and so on. My classes were always very full!
A whole bunch of years pass, and as is my wont, I got bored. I tried a few things on the side—male massage and escort service owner (yes it’s quite legal in BC), consultant, but really, I had the wandering itch. I moved down to Southern California and taught university there (don’t ask—it was not pleasant), and then a tiny island in Mexico’s Mayan Riviera, (http://www.holboxisland.com/) teaching English, learning Spanish, eating ceviche and drinking whatever was available, generally vino tinto (red wine) and margueritas at the beach bar. Lots of fun, but after a while, not very intellectually stimulating.
So I moved back to Vancouver, got a new condo, and a new job—BC Centre for Disease Control, where I am the “Public Health Research Programs Coordinator”—an omnibus job that advises the researchers with regard to ethics, budgets, personnel, finances, and structure, while at the same time authorizing their expenditures, and so on. And I teach a bit (ethics mostly). So finally, all that ‘book learning’ pays off—the business, the sociology and the epidemiology. Ain’t life grand??
Yes—I have not discussed love life or anything like that. Perhaps that will be saved for an update, at some future time. Just leave it as “in a relationship—it’s complicated”.
Michael