Les McDade:  

Life I heard about a planned reunion and it had me thinking about finally working up a Classmates profile. Here it is... Where to begin...? Some people like to say they make their own luck. That may be the case, but I consider myself to have been pretty lucky (despite one or two regrets along the way) over the past 20 years since High School. New opportunities always seemed to come along just in time to save me from complacency...or insanity. I was married at 30, and started a family within a year (Heath '00, Kaelan '05). Again, the right situation comes along and *wow* - the shift in your life perspective can be humbling. When I met my wife, Cori (KVHS '94, UNBSJ '98), she was beautiful, yes, but was also fundamentally, deeply, a good person. It challenged me in a way I appreciated and changed my life substantially. We've had all the basic ups and downs every marriage has had, and made it through. She balances me. I found my comfort zone professionally in marketing, and in technology as an industry. The pace of change has kept things interesting, even if the number of mergers, aquisitions, re-orgs and restructurings I've worked through have made things a little too eventful. I've travelled a bit, had an interesting and rewarding career, and never had to move out of the area. I've worked from a home office for the last few years and have thankfully managed to go a long way to finding that balance between career and family. If you're not there yet, please realize two things: one - nobody is ever fondly remembered for how those evenings and weekends they put in increased share value, and two - much of what makes a child who they become as a person is influenced in the firs...Expand for more