After having taken a year off from school due to health issues, Audra Lovato will graduate from college.
In 2010, Lovato was diagnosed with Ulcerative colitis, and despite the several medications she was taking, had to undergo emergency surgery starting in the fall of 2013. The surgery consisted of three major procedures, all three months apart and done in Arizona.
“It just didn’t seem realistic to come back to school for a month and leave,” she said.
But Lovato did return soon after the surgeries were completed and resumed where she had left off, determined to finish what she had started.
“I got three years down (in college) when the sickness just became so bad and they had to do emergency surgery,” she said. “I had done three years; I had made it that far. I (couldn’t) just stop, so I came back.”
Lovato grew up in Algodones, about 6 miles north of Bernalillo, and was able to attend UNM with the New Mexico Lottery Scholarship.
Lovato’s determination to finish motivated her and has impacted the people around her. Santiago Aguilar, a close friend of hers and an alumnus of UNM, said, “I am so proud of her, having to take off school for a year and going back. If I had to take off school like that I don’t think I would have had the motivation to continue like she did.”
Lovato’s motivation has carried on into her future plans with her foreign language degree, as she aspires to travel to Japan and teach Japanese children English while continuing with her education in graduate school.
“I had a part-time job as a tutor for the Language Academy, and it was pre-school children who I had taught Japanese,” she said. “I loved it, I loved the little ones, and it was such a rewarding experience. I applied to the JET Program to teach English in Japan.”
Lovato attributes her success in school to her friends who have been with her through it all.
“It’s really hard for someone to understand the effects of a chronic illness when you have never felt it,” Lovato said. “I was really lucky to have very sympathetic friends, and they’re really supportive of me and they always said to ‘put your health first, you can always come back to school.’”
Knowing that she would come back to UNM surrounded by friends who were waiting for her is what she said encouraged her the most.
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Looking back now, Lovato remembers the struggles before the surgeries and how she felt angry with school, other people and herself. Despite the hardships, Lovato has taken away more than just a degree or the knowledge that she can continue one with her dreams.
“After my surgeries I realized how terrible that was, and I’ve really strived to become a nicer and more sympathetic person and to know that everybody goes through their own struggles,” she said. “It was a terrible experience, but I think I am a little better for it.”
Isaiah Jordan is a culture reporter at the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter@ DailyLobo.
