Humans of the High Plains: Make the Trip

Kit Carson graduate Stephanie Framel is about to start her junior year at Adams State University in Alamosa in the nursing program where she will be starting her health and hospital clinicals this semester where she and her counterparts will be working in clinicals with this opportunity being funded by the Colorado Rural Health Workforce Initiative. But before she begins that serious and taxing work, she took an end-of-summer fling to Moab, Utah where she found herself checking off a major Bucket List item she had been carrying along in her mind for many years. Stephanie says, “I am what you could call an adrenaline junkie and live for the once in a lifetime opportunity.”

She and one of her college friends traveled to Moab to Skydive Moab in order to make her jump. They ended up jumping out at roughly 14,000 feet in the air. Stephanie said, “The whole way up I was taking in the view and just super excited to fulfill this bucket list item.” Stephanie then describes what she felt during the actual jump, “We did about a minute of free falling then the parachute deployed and I got to steer a couple of turns while in the air still before making our landing. As we did a flip out of the plane all I could think was this is so worth it and truly an incredible experience, one I would be willing to do again.”

Stephanie made her final decision to go for this goal because of an important mentor she has in her life. Alyssa Hogan, a Kit Carson educator and young mother who recently lost her husband Mark Hogan in a terrible automobile accident, had told her something that made her so adamant about getting to go out and travel and do those awesome things we only dream of. She said, “Make the trip. Take the time. Create the magic. Capture the moments. Treasure the memories. Never take the opportunities for granted.”