Class Note 2007. I was inspired when I found out that Jess (Kramer) Bullitt had spent a year in Barcelona with her family, so I asked her to share her reflections and lessons learned. She wrote in, “After seven years with the same company, I quit and decided to take the summer off. That already felt indulgent, but then the company my husband was at got acquired, and suddenly we both had an open window. We had always talked about living abroad with our two boys, but with two careers it never seemed possible. We knew it was now or never.
“We chose Barcelona because we wanted to skip a winter, have an easy base from which to travel, and let the boys learn Spanish. It was a bit of a lark as my only prior visit was for a weekend during my 2005 language study abroad in Lyon, France—and I remembered very little about it other than I stayed in a dingy hostel and walked forever with Avery Eyre Lovejoy, Liz Yepsen, Dane Schlossberg, and Allan Reynolds!
“The year vastly exceeded our expectations. Our primary goal was to show our kids that the world was bigger than our polished American suburb—and the year delivered. My kids’ new best friends are from Kazakhstan and Argentina. We traveled frequently until we noticed the kids had lost the ability to discern one city from the next: Common answers to ‘where are we?’ included Los Angeles, Australia, and New Jersey.
“Barcelona also had the surprise benefit of attracting many families that moved there to slow down. We always found someone to play padel, hike the trails behind the city, or share a mid-day cortado. We built an amazing community, one that would meet every Friday afternoon at the plaza closest to school, having drinks while the children ran around, played soccer, and enjoyed a level of independence that would alarm most Americans.
“Living among people who are prioritizing quality of life over ambition forced me to reckon with how much of my identity was built around accomplishment and forward momentum. Being abroad and seeing so many different kinds of families make it work made me realize most of the barriers, at least for many of us, are mental. Back home, everyone said, “Wow, you’re so brave.” In Spain, people couldn’t believe we were staying only a year. It’s left us hungry for more, and we hope to do something similar in a few years.”
I’ve been lucky enough to stay in touch with Sebastian Restrepo through a partnership he created between my school, Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) NYC College Prep, and his firm, Société Générale (SG). Sebastian’s group has taken a day out of each of the past three school years to host my students for financial literacy sessions, résumé workshops, and even business-etiquette lunches in SG’s executive dining room. Sebastian shared more about his career and family life: “After graduating from Tuck, we spent four years in New York City before heading to California during Covid—only to boomerang back two years later. We’re now happily settled in Greenwich, Connecticut, where I live with my wife, our 12-year-old son, and our crazy dog FDR (Franklin Dogg Restrepo).
“This past year we enjoyed a fun week in Kennebunkport, Maine, with Andrew Eastman, wife, Emily, and their wonderful 1-year-old daughter celebrating Andrew’s promotion to partner at Husch Blackwell. Earlier in the year we met up with the Eastmans again—this time with David Prout and wife Kristie—for a weekend in Charleston, South Carolina. We also survived an injury-free ski weekend in Stowe, Vermont, with Will Brown and family.”
See you at reunion 2027!
—Sam Routhier, 543 W 122nd St., Apt. 25B, New York, NY 10027; samrouthier@gmail.com