You don’t let life happen; you make it happen.
These simple words seem to have reverberated in Melissa Lasater’s head for the past several decades.
When she was just a little girl growing up in New Braunfels, her grandmother was everything to her: A role model, a friend, and in this case, a sage bearer of advice.
You don’t let life happen; you make it happen.
“She inspired me in her final days,” Lasater says of her grandmother. “Her stories, the risks she took. She told me not to just sit there, but to make it happen.”
For Lasater, “making it happen” would end up meaning a whole string of life events and accomplishments, but it all started with one simple choice: going to Baylor.
“I’d always talked about going to Baylor since I was a kid,” she says, remembering her third grade teacher who had somehow gotten the Baylor bug in her ear, and it had just stuck.
But Lasater’s journey to college wasn’t exactly the “traditional” one–a theme we’ll see throughout her life. When she was in her early twenties she’d forgone a bachelor’s degree and plummeted herself straight into the workforce as a junior accountant. She was married; she was living a good life in New Braunfels with her husband, steps away from the beautiful, historic Gruene. Everything was good–but that childhood dream of going to Baylor kept calling to her.
Make it happen…
So at the age of 25, Lasater decided to give it a try. She’d go to Baylor.
Getting In
Of course as soon as Lasater decided to go Baylor, life did what it does best and changed her plans. Before she could apply, she got pregnant with her first son, Mason. She, her husband, and Mason all moved to Waco where Lasater would finish her basic course requirements at MCC, and then she’d go to Baylor.
And of course, life intervened yet again when Lasater found herself pregnant with her second child.
“I was like, I’m never going now,” she recalls. “It’s just not going to happen.” She thought with two kids, a life in a new city, and mounting bills, getting her degree at Baylor was just not feasible.
But her grandmother didn’t raise Lasater to give up easily–or at all.
“My Grandmother was a force,” Lasater says. “She used her voice and wasn’t limited by any cultural norms.”
She smiles and tells a story about her grandma who, as a teenager, desperately wanted to play basketball. At that time in Mexico this was not a “women’s sport.” It just wasn’t done. But she did it anyway and even won a regional championship–much to the chagrin of her entire community.
“She didn’t let things stop her,” Lasater says. And that sheer grit and determination seems to have been passed down to her granddaughter, because even in her late twenties with two children, Melissa Lasater made it happen.
She applied to her dream school, and she got in–with a generous scholarship package to boot.
Working Nine to Five
During this time in her life–juggling raising two children, a full course load at Baylor, and working at Waco Hall as an usher– Lasater wished she was only working nine to five. She recalls staying up late into the night writing papers, cleaning the house, and prepping breakfast for the next day. And she doesn’t sugarcoat or romanticize those early days.
“I think it was a lot [to juggle it all]. I was going through the motions,” she says. “When you’re a mom, you do things. You don’t know how you do them, but you get them done.”
She recalls a time when she had a family emergency: Her son, Mason, had been playing with a friend and fell wrong–all wrong. He broke his femur badly and needed surgery and then months of recovery in a wheelchair. She remembers nervously asking Dr. Owens–the sort of harsh but crucial professor everyone admired and similarly feared–for an extension on a paper during this time.
Of course he granted her the extension, but for Lasater the stress of even asking was a lot.
“In hindsight, I was just so hard on myself to be the very best,” she says. She recalls feeling like everything was riding on her grades and ability to keep up–her scholarship, her future livelihood, her kids’ welfare.
“It was a lot.”
A Dream of Journalism
Over the years, parenting and going to school didn’t necessarily get easier, Lasaster says, but it did change. Her children got older and required new and different things. She got older and learned more about who she was and what she needed.
A dream of being a broadcast journalist shifted to one of working in public relations.
And during her time studying public relations in Baylor’s journalism department, she got some great opportunities. She wrote for a Baylor journalism magazine, she produced infographics and videos, and she met some folks who’d be influential throughout her career and life.
“Rod Aydelotte was my Intro to Photography professor at Baylor,” she says. Aydelotte was (and still is) the Photo Chief at the Waco Tribune-Herald, and in a strange turn of events, ended up being one of Lasater’s first bosses after her time at Baylor.
“I ended up working at the Waco Trib as a freelancer in a pretty unconventional way,” Lasater laughs.
It all started when she was attending a Midway High School football game. Her son, Mason, was in “The Panther Pack,” a group of kids who get to fiercely and adorably run out in front of the football players on the field on game days.
Lasater mostly just wanted a picture of her son doing his thing, but no photographers from the paper were in sight. She called Aydelotte.
“Who’s covering the game?” she recalls asking over the phone.
“You are,” he said easily.
So Lasater rushed the few minutes home to grab her camera, walked confidently onto the field–“I have no idea why they let me onto that field,” she laughs–and snapped the photos of the team; and of course, of Mason.
After she dropped them off with Aydelotte, he offered her a job.
After Baylor
Lasater stayed with the Waco Tribune-Herald for three years after graduating from Baylor. In those three years, she learned how to take a cover-worthy photo, and moreover, how to tell a story. She’s even occasionally stopped by Aydelotte’s class at Baylor over the years as a guest speaker.
But, of course, Melissa Lasater was not done. And as her grandmother might have put it, she still had much more life to make happen.
She somehow “found the time” to get her master’s degree in strategic communication from Texas Tech during Covid. She also got a job in the chancellor’s office at Texas State Technical College (TSTC) and was still raising two children–who were now being home-schooled during the early days of the pandemic.
Always a learner and seemingly never satisfied to stay put, Lasater kept on making it happen, and over several years worked her way up the ranks at TSTC.
After serving with the chancellor, she became the senior executive director for digital communications, and these days she’s the programming team lead for Industrial Systems for Precision Machines and Robotics. It’s a job that has challenged her to learn a completely new skillset (programming robotics–not exactly something she’d done before) in a male-dominated field, nonetheless; but it also allows her to stay put in Waco with her family.
“My kids are getting older,” she says. “I only have two years before my oldest leaves [for college], so I really wanted to make sure I was here.”
Staying in Waco
Not only is Lasater staying put in Waco, but after 14 years she’s made a real community here.
She’s currently on the board of Creative Waco representing TSTC. She’s also an ambassador for the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce and Cen-Tex Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. She’s the vice chair for KWBU Council. And somehow she also still has time to mentor high school girls through the LEAD program, showing them the ropes in different industries and jobs.
“I’m humbled and honored,” she says, reflecting on the myriad of titles and responsibilities she has within the community. “These are all areas that I care deeply about … And there’s a lot of growth happening here in Waco. If I get to be a small part of that, that’s incredibly rewarding.”
As far as her future goes, Lasater laughs and says she “wouldn’t count out another change in career” at some point. After all, according to Lasater, “life is too short not to try something new.”
“But right now I’m really happy where I’m at,” she adds.
Make it Happen
While Lasater does admit to having moments of self doubt and imposter syndrome over the years, she also knows–You don’t let life happen; you make it happen.
Lasater started college later in life with two children. She earned herself a job at the Waco Tribune-Herald, then worked her way up the ranks at TSTC. She’s involved in just about every aspect of Waco’s community underbelly. And all the while she’s raised two children and maintained a marriage.
When asked what she’d tell other women–other mothers–who have a dream but doubt their ability to make it a reality, she says this: “Keep talking about [your dream]. Speak it into reality. The only thing holding you back is you. If it’s something you really want, you just have to work for it.
“It might not happen today. But if you don’t put yourself out there, you limit the possibilities. We’ve only got this one life.”
In other words,
Don’t let life happen; make it happen.
And Melissa Lasater certainly has.
