TWENTY YEARS ????

So, I don't know if anyone remembers Kristin Swenson but I sure remember all of you. Turning 38 this month made me think back to the Duchesne days and all of the bizarreness that was high school. I went online and found this blog. Even though I am not technically alumni, Travis was good enough to let me post and here I am.



me-- doing what I do best


Before saying anything else,
Missy, I am so, so sorry about the passing of your mom. She was an amazing lady and really made a difference in a lot of people's lives--including mine.

Dorothy, get in touch with me (kls13 at utah dot edu). I ride out there from time to time and would love to hook up with you.

Everybody else, feel free to get in touch too. Reading through this blog was quite a trip and I would love to attend the reunion. Even though I didn't graduate with you guys, we did grow up together and, as Missy said, Duchesne will always be my home town.


I'll try to do a brief summary of my life since leaving Duchesne:

After being expelled from DHS (nothing that I’m proud of) I attended Union High for the remainder of that year. My parent then moved to Orem and off to Orem High I went. Right after high school, I went to Dixie College and did alright; I graduated and made some friends that I still have today. After that it took 3 ½ years to do a half-assed job finishing a BS at the U of U. I felt just as lost at that time as I did in high school. I had jobs working in group homes, managing a group home, and working at a drug rehab—but I was unhappy in the jobs and in life.

In the spring of ’94 I took a week long vacation to go to Jackson. I just kept driving, following the melting snow, to Yellowstone, Glacier, the Canadian Rockies, the Yukon, and finally, more than a month later, I ran out of money in Valdez Alaska. I got a job working on a day tour boat; learned how to tend bar and started mountaineering. I returned home to Utah as a new person and spent six wonderful years tending bar and snowboarding in the winter and traveling the world on adventure in the summer.

I spent the summer of ’00 hiking the Appalachian Trail—that five-month hike was a period of introspection, which resulted in my return to school. I spent a year brown-nosing, which was necessary to get into grad school (with grades like mine) and started my program in ’02. I have now completed my PhD in Educational Psychology (I actually walk for my diploma tomorrow!) and this has led to a good life. I have been teaching in the teacher’s Ed program at the U for the past two years, which I absolutely love. I also do some consulting for the school districts and I work on my own research.

Fortunately, I still get to travel and adventure in the summers. This summer I am ultra running; I have a 100K race in Wisconsin in June, a 50-mile race in Montana in July and (the queen mother) a 100-mile race in Colorado in August. In between the July and August races is a solo project that I put together where I will climb 14 14ers in 14 days. Goofy things to do, I know, but they make me happy.

So that’s me. I looked through the blog and saw the beautiful families you all have made. I never did that, I have somewhat of a make-shift family right now. I’ve got a house mate named Fish and we have two yellow labs between us. Here is a picture of us at Christmas: