Luck to all NU 84s, and thanks for a great weekend

So, wifi from 35K never ceases to amaze.

Twenty five years seems like a long time, and hey, I guess it is about 1/3 of your life, hopefully a bit less. Walking the Northwestern campus was like a strange time warp, seem like nothing had changed but everything had too. 1980-1984 seems like a distant dream. Then walking into the reunion party and seeing the faces from that dream was both exciting and a bit unsettling. Some great people, and most seemed to have changed yet stayed the same.

I think of my journey since then, a long and winding road, filled with dreams fulfilled and for the greatest most part joy and a luckily relatively small amount of sorrow. I think of all the transitions, from engineer to sales rep to business person, from Chicago to NY to Chicago to Ca, from single to married to father, and it is hard to imagine to have asked for a more fufilling journey.

Many years ago, my old high school wrestling coach had a saying, "luck is when preparation meets opportunity." Northwestern truly did prepare me for life. The education, both in and outside the classroom, the people, everything, must of made me a very lucky man. I've had a thrilling career, and am blessed with an amazing wife and 4 incredible little ones. Who woulda predicted that? And I was really amazed by the success and maturity that I saw in all those 47 year olds who seem like they were just 22 a few years ago! Well done friends.

Maybe it is a bit ironic that I now find myself at a crossroads of my career, and at a crossroads in the family. I have decided to go out alone as an idependent consultant, and our first child is approaching tween-ness and already showing signs of independence, and hormones :). As I embark on the next 25 years, I've already marked the data for the 50th in 2034, and I think I am prepared well to venture into my new consulting business and to continue to create a loving home for our children to grow in and to eventually leave from. I only hope that my preparation paves the way for more opportunity and luck...and to all those others, fortunate enough to have had the preparation I did, I wish you all the luck

Over and out
"Rut"