Christmas 1998

No Worries. Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah and Happy Holidays to everybody from my first Christmas card attempt. I hope this year has treated you and your friends and family well. I have not had the opportunity to see many of you often this year because, as most of you know, I spent the majority of the year in Sydney on business transfer with my company. I first learned of the opportunity late last year and packed my bags for the January departure. Seven months later, I had to leave my new home along Bondi beach. Fortunately, I was able to take advantage of airfare deals and traveled through Asia and Africa on my way home for most of September. Since returning to Chicago, I’ve re-grounded my roots in a cozy one-bedroom apartment in Lincoln Park. My time is spent hard at work back at Bain & Company, the consulting firm I work for as a recently promoted Senior Associate Consultant, and catching up with friends. While I may have picked up some Aussie colloquialisms, I’m still the same Stenning you know and (fill in appropriate blank): the outdoor enthusiast cheering for the Packers, dating Tindley Whipple, interested in photography, and probably still too sarcastic for my own good. And that’s the wrap-up if you need to stop reading here.

Self? While not recommended for everyone, I found that a completely new environment immersion can significantly aid one’s search for self-awareness. Moving around so much as a child (Northbrook, London, Paris, Northbrook, Barrington) instilled in me a sense of openness and wonder, never settling for a mentality of "this is the only way to look at things." My time in Sydney – living alone, 8,500 miles from family and friends, plunged in a new culture, and once again needing to create a new definition of "Stenning" – was fantastic and reinforced the concept of "the more you know and learn the more you realize how little you know and how much you still need to learn." I made great new friends from around the world and learned a great deal about myself in the meantime. Traveling alone through third world countries will also tend to toughen the skin a little! Discussing politics, economics, and religion with locals was exhilarating. I’m so happy to be back in Chicago and my time here with family and friends is priceless. Chicago really is a fantastic city with something to do around every corner that we too often take for granted.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles. The Australians work hard during the week but the weekends are not to be touched. I spent a lot of time traveling with Bain friends to the cities, wine valleys, natural wonders and exotic destinations that make Australia and New Zealand unforgettable. Tindley also came down for a few weeks in May and we spent the first wonderful week together at Hayman Island in the Reef and the second back in beautiful Sydney. My trip home, personally dubbed "Around the 3^rd World in 31 Days," took me first on a short elephant trek in northern Thailand quickly trailed by Bangkok’s mystery. Saigon and central Vietnam were next, followed by a few days in Hong Kong with my friend Ananya. I found the history and grandeur of Cairo and Luxor to be fascinating, but frankly found the locals a shade too unsettling. Kosty, a friend of mine from Bain, helped me up Mount Kilimanjaro and I spent the next week in Kenya recovering on safari. Back in Chicago I have focused on settling back in with the exception of a short trip to Napa Valley. And, if the work schedule permits in the upcoming year, I look forward to trying to get out of Chicago on some weekends to visit my friends throughout the country.

Sponges. The transfer to Sydney was a welcome eye-opening experience. The office there (as many international locations do) lacks many of the more formal structures that exist here at home, creating unparalleled professional opportunity for those willing to dedicate the sweat and hardship. I was excited with the "forced freedom" and, while it was often frustrating and daunting during the trial, was able to achieve significant value-added client impact. It reinforced my principle that status, age, and attitude all have their due place, but sometimes an original and sometimes outlandish idea can pave the necessary road to success. Where my personal drive takes me over the next few years, and whether or not it leads to a societal definition of "success," is not a concern of mine at this point. I am still enjoying each and every day as an opportunity to contribute to my firm and my client while learning skills that contribute to my own professional growth. In short, I’m still a sponge.

You can contact me via email (stenning.schueppert@bain.com), telephone (h)773.880.1921 or (w)312.651.7530, the web (www.geocities.com/~stenning) – my personal page I hope to improve soon, or mail (2300 Lincoln Park West; Apt #501, Chicago, IL 60614). When possible, I’m always up for a quick lunch, funny movie, relaxing wine tasting, powerful game of PlayStation, frustrating game of poker (I’m fun to play with… I always loose), or refreshing bike ride. I look forward to hearing about your stories – I’m always amazed to learn about all the adventures my friends are having – and creating new ones together.

**All photographs (unless otherwise noted) are the property of Stenning Schueppert and may not be distributed or circulated for any purposes (personal or commercial) without his express written consent. Questions or comments regarding selected photographs are, of course, welcome.
Distributed December 23, 1998.