Texan Mosaic

by MATT MOLINAR//Opinion Editor

[Editor’s note: This story is part of an ongoing project in conjunction with the South Plains College Alumni Association. The project highlights former SPC students and their achievements.]

Lana Adcock says that no matter what the circumstances may be, anyone can do anything they dedicate themselves to.

Adcock began her life in Lubbock and attended Coronado High School before becoming a student at Texas Tech University. However, due to the large class size, Adcock decided maybe TTU wasn’t the best first option.

“Tech really wasn’t for me in the beginning,” Adcock said. “I really didn’t like the size of the classes. When you first start out at Tech, it’s extremely overwhelming. I didn’t know how to study coming out of high school, and it was also very expensive.”

After attending TTU her freshman year, Adcock decided South Plains College could be a better fit. Not  only does Adcock think the switch was financially beneficial, she also found out from friends that the SPC community size would benefit her.

“When I decided to go to SPC, I actually ended up getting money back from my scholarships and my Pell Grant,” Adcock explained. “It was such a blessing having SPC only 30 minutes away from me.”

Before graduating in the spring of 2015, Adcock spent her time studying as an education major at SPC, finishing her core classes and showing interest in early childhood education. However, her “serving heart” began giving Adcock second thoughts about her career choice.

“My personality makes it hard to have children who are a part of a troubled family or other problems at home,” Adcock said. “I’m a fixer, so I try to fix everything and everybody. Knowing that you can only do so much while those kids are with you, they go home where there’s no love or encouragement. That’s really hard on my heart.”

While beginning the search for a new career, Adcock was appointed by the Covenant Hospital for Children, where she had been receiving treatment for cerebral palsy, to take an internship position in the public relations department.

“I switched my major over to public relations,” Adcock said. “I took my internship in Dallas in 2015 at the hospital. I worked all summer after graduating in May.”

Adcock was born with a cerebral palsy condition that limits her movement. She was diagnosed at 6 months old and was treated free of charge for 17 and a half years.

“They are the reason that I am the person I am today,” Adcock said. “I really don’t know where I would be without them today. The family I had there was extremely loving and overwhelmingly supportive. Nowadays, a lot of people don’t know I had CP because of the treatments I went through. They assured me that I could do anything with CP. You can do anything regardless of your physical capabilities.”

Currently, Adcock considers herself a world traveler. With no set job, she travels to different regions, including Alaska and Austria.

“I was on a boat in Alaska on a fishing cruise,” Adcock said. “I got that job through a friend while I was living in Orange Beach, Alabama. My roommate was a deep sea fishing captain. At night, I would wait tables. I would post pictures of my different adventures. A girl I went to Frenship and Coronado high schools with said she really liked what I was doing and asked me to move up to Alaska with her.”

Adcock packed everything she owned in Alabama, boarded a plane and began her adventure in Whittier, Alaska. She worked for two months as a deckhand.

“Once I finished, I came home and was offered a position at Lubbock Country Club as an event manager,” Adcock said. “I decided, even as much as I enjoy the service industry, it just wasn’t the place for me to be at the time.”

Adcock gathered her belongings once more and headed to live in Austria for a month with a good friend. She spent her time in Innsbruck, the capital of Austria’s western state of Tyrol, located in the Alps.

“On weekends, we would go to different places,” Adcock said. “We went to Mallorka, Spain, Prague, Czech Republic, and Salsburg. We did all kinds of stuff. It was really different for me, because that was the first time I didn’t have a job. We realized our money was being spent faster. So I decided to get a job with my captain in Alaska as a deckhand again to finish out the season for another two months. I worked five or six days a week and went on adventures.”

Adcock has many more trips planned and is currently not looking for a full-time job.

“Traveling wasn’t my dream until my best friend became a flight attendant about two years ago,” Adcock explained “She decided that we were traveling the world. We just didn’t know how we were going to afford it.”

Adcock explains that she would tell current SPC students to stay as long as they can.

“I really do miss it,” Adcock said. “I met so many different people from different parts of the United States. It was really awesome that I could get to know my professors.”