Estes Park Health Internal Medicine Physician has penned a letter to her patients announcing her departure from Estes Park Health in September.

In the letter, she said that the decision to resign from Estes Park Health is “both exhilarating and heartbreaking, and was not arrived at lightly.”

She called Estes Park a second family, having practiced there for seven years.

“Working as a hospitalist for several years prior to settling here, I never anticipated that my pivot into primary care would lead to the authentic connections, love and investment in each other that we have developed over these years,” Schneider said in the letter. “In the face of medical and life challenges, I hope that I have at least been a patient sounding board and soft place to land, as you have been for me.”

Schneider wrote that she made the decision to step back from medicine in order to see and experience things that she otherwise wouldn’t until formal retirement, and have these experiences before it’s too late.

She announced that Sept. 4 will be her last day with Estes Park Health, she’ll take some down time, then she’ll set off on a year-long travel adventure that will take her to 17 countries over four continents.

“You have shown me that life is not meant to be taken for granted,” Schneider wrote. “It is a gift; open it up and see what is inside now rather than stowing it away to be opened and experienced down the road.”

Schneider admitted that because she’ll miss many important people, there will likely be times during which she regrets her decision. Even so, she wrote, she’s confident that it is the right one for her, at this moment in my life.