Robyn Lemos is a 29 year old mother of two. She is currently enrolled in the Registered Nursing program at the College of the Siskiyous, in California.
What is your passion and mission in life?
I have known since I was just a little girl that I wanted to help people and it wasn’t until High School that I strongly considered being a nurse. I knew the amount of dedication, schooling and responsibility that came with being a nurse and really wanted to make sure this is something I could handle. So I started off caregiving in an assisted living facility while attending college, perusing nursing. I took care of patients who suffered from severe Alzheimer’s and dementia. I loved the connections I made with them and enjoyed helping those who needed it the most. I continued to finish prerequisites while working, and after 3 years, I attended a program to become a phlebotomist and landed my first job back in my hometown at our local hospital. While working at Fairchild, I applied for the LVN program at the College of the Siskiyous and got in!
What was your biggest hardship and how did you overcome it?
I started school in 2015 and halfway through the 18-month program my fiancé and I became pregnant with our first child. Our due date was July 2016, two months after I was due to graduate. But of course, life doesn’t always go as planned and at 30 weeks gestation, 6 days from graduation, our son had to be delivered via emergency C-section due to severe pre-eclampsia. We were so scared, but our little 2 ½ pounder did great! He had no complications and made an incredible comeback! Within 4 days after he was born the school allowed me to finish to be able to walk with my class. This had to be the hardest thing I have ever done. Leave my son in the NICU, 45 miles from home to finish nursing school. I would get up bright and early, snuggle our little guy and then head south to finish clinical hours and take tests for the following days until May 26th, when I walked the stage and earned my diploma. We spent 56 days in the NICU as I studied for the N-CLEX. I passed in August and was officially an LVN!
Soon after, I applied for the RN program and was on the waitlist for the 2019 class. We found out July 2018 we were expecting our second child and couldn’t believe it! We quickly calculated and figured our due date to be March 2019. Well, as I mentioned before…life never goes as planned and January 2019 I received an email stating that the program was due to start March 11, 2019 and our due date was March 28th! We ended up having our son March 1, 2019, and we couldn’t have felt more blessed for a healthy baby and smooth delivery! I had a week to recover before I started school and boy was it harder than I expected! I was pumping during my quick breaks so my son could eat while I was away and it was the most challenging thing I have ever done! There was a fire in my soul so bright that I just knew deep down I could not give up. It’s purely amazing what a woman can do when she puts her mind to something, and what she will do for her family.
How has this adversity affected raising children?
I have never been so determined to finish something ever in my life and I contribute that to being a mother. Both me and my fiancé want to show our boys that no matter what challenges pop up in life, you are more than capable as long as you put in the hard work and never give up!
