Summer Plans Take Shape

by Cavan Pasek

As the Ouray School calendar winds down, students have their summer plans foremost in mind. Traveling, working, sports, and hanging out are the sought-after activities that students are looking forward to.

For example, freshman Teya Dow is looking forward to her four-job summer. Teya explains how she “will be at High Country Leathers, at a ranch, at my baking business, and I will babysit.” She is looking forward to her busy schedule because she chooses jobs that she enjoys. 

Other than her jobs, Teya is looking forward to “spending time with family and friends,” she added. “Also a lot of training with my mustang this summer.” Her mustang, Vision, needs extra training because “me and my mustang are competing in the Montrose County Fair.” 

Teya also has plans out of the state. She enjoys traveling and said, “We’re going to visit my grandparents at Manhattan beach in California.” However, the one thing that Teya is looking forward to the most is the return of her sister Ina from her first year in college from Western Colorado University.

Junior Roman Sackman also has a busy summer schedule to look forward to. As a summer job he will “work construction with my dad.” In addition to summer jobs, Roman is a Montrose High School football player and will practice “four days a week in the summer: off season weights and conditioning.” The event Roman is looking forward to the most is “4th of July,” he added, “hanging out with friends.” 

Roman also hopes to travel this summer, and named Arizona as “a fun place to go: warm, sandy, a lot different from here. Or Texas for fishing,” he added, or the “Florida Keys, something like that.”

Freshman Luke Hughes can’t wait to enjoy his favorite summer activities. “I like catching snakes,” he said, and “long bike rides, and climbing.” He’s excited his siblings can join him: “My little brother Layton is going to start climbing this summer,” he said. “My little sister Lincoln is getting into climbing too.” Luke has a summer job at Ouray Brewery, and is also trying to get another job as a lifeguard. “I just need to pass one more test and take a few more classes, then I’ll be set,” he said. 

Junior Landen Hill’s summer job will be “working at my mom’s shop,” the Yankee Girl Cafe. But he suspects the high point of the summer will be his debut “in the water fights on the Fourth of July.” He looks forward to “dirt bike riding, too.” As for sports, Landen will be participating in “off-season basketball stuff.” As to traveling plans, Landen said, “I might go to Texas with my dad.”

Freshman Keaton Nelson appreciates how “we have the hot springs and the Fourth of July is always fun,” he said. “Summers in Ouray are cool.”