At a young age, Laredo College Vocational Nursing Program graduate Lisa Shawn Cabello witnessed her grandfather struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Growing up among a family of healthcare professionals, she was inspired to join the field and make a lasting impact on her family and their future.
When she was five years old, seeing him confined to his bed during the advanced stages of the disease awakened the desire to do more for him. As she watched her aunts care for him as healthcare professionals, they showed her the fundamentals of caring for a loved one and what it truly meant to be a nurse.
During her senior year in high school, she became a mother. Her three daughters have always been her highest priority, even as she pushed her career goal further into the future. Despite her strong desire to work in the healthcare field, Cabello said that her journey into it would need to take a pause to ensure she raised her three daughters with the attention they deserved and needed.
Cabello said that it was not until the COVID-19 pandemic that her thoughts returned to her goal of becoming a nurse. With the world-stopping healthcare crisis that increased the need for nurses, the path and her mind were made clear.
However, this new path came with some reluctancy and opposition.
Shifting attention away from her daughters would be near impossible and a few naysayers telling her that entering the field just could not be done by a mother of three made her hesitate with the steps she would need to take.
“I actually was told when I was pregnant with my first daughter that I should give up on my dream because I was becoming a mom and becoming a nurse was no longer an option for me,” she said. “When they told me that, I said ‘don’t worry, just watch me. It might take me even longer than everyone else, but one day I will make it happen.’”
This noise and negativity, however, was silenced by her oldest daughter, who told her that she could do it. Her oldest was followed by her two younger sisters, Cabello said, and that they were the number one reason she fought to enter the program and succeed.
“My oldest would always ask me when I was going to become a nurse because she knew that was always my dream,” she said.
Between the love of her daughters and family, nothing held her back from joining the VN Program at Laredo College and showing them how their mother would make it to graduation.
Last week, Cabello attended her pinning ceremony before walking down across the stage on her graduation. Among her regalia, a photo of her grandfather traveled with her inside a locket on her stole. Within herself, Cabello kept hold the promise made years before that despite the struggles and opposition, she would become a nurse.
“I know it would make him happy to see that I am here and that he inspired me to help,” she said. “Nursing always had my attention, and years later, since those moments with my grandfather, he and my daughters really inspired and motivated me to come back to school.”
This success was not without its hardships.
“I missed my daughter’s third grade graduation for school. It was the first time I wasn’t seeing one of their award ceremonies, but she told me that she knew that I was there in spirit,” Cabello said.
With study sessions needed for tests, long nights were had away from her daughters, husband and parents. Cabello said that while their positivity was always at home, the hours of studies, labs and hard work often pulled her away from them.
In these moments, it was her class friends that helped each other push one another toward the finish line.
“We were all kind of a mix. Some of us were moms, some not. We grew a strong bond together as when you get into the program alone, it’s nice to fit in with others and motivate each other through the exams and labs,” she said. “It is good to have all this support from my now close friends.”
With all this support, the finish line has been crossed, but Cabello isn’t done yet. She has her eyes set on the Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She has already proven naysayers wrong, her family’s support is unwavering and her new friends continue to support her.
She believes that mothers have the unbreakable will to achieve what their minds are focused on and encourages everyone to follow their dreams and ignore those that say otherwise.