Brianna Roach has advice for those who think they can’t go to college because it is too costly:

“Don’t let anybody tell you what you can and can’t do,” she said. “Don’t look at the financial piece of it because a lot of people do that and think if they’re from a low-income family, they’re not going to get far.”

Push yourself, she said, and be your own advocate to get what you want.

“Never take barriers as defeat; take them as lessons you can overcome and transform into strength,” she said. “Don’t let anyone write your story. Your strength is defined by what you rise above.”

It may seem like novice advice from a 22-year-old Thomas College senior, but Roach knows what she’s talking about.

She grew up in a low-income family in Lisbon Falls. When she was only 3 weeks old, doctors found she had a heart murmur, which required open heart surgery. Her brain never fully developed, making her school years difficult, but she was not diagnosed until years later.

“I was put down in high school by teachers and students,” she said. “I was bullied my whole life. I didn’t have many friends. Teachers told me I wasn’t working hard enough.”

The truth was she was working very hard. Her mother worked a full-time job to support her and her two brothers and a fourth, adopted child. Roach cleaned, cooked and cared for her siblings and father, who is disabled.

“He has Type 1 diabetes, is a double amputee and has congestive heart failure,” she said. “When I was 16, he was in a coma for 1 1/2 months. He had two heart attacks and one was in front of me. When I was a kid, I basically grew up being like a third parent.”

Roach would call 911 when her father had an emergency, and even lived for a year in Boston when she was a high school sophomore because her father was in critical care at a hospital there.

“Somehow I still managed to finish school and make it out with a 3.0 grade point average,” she said.

Roach also worked at Dunkin’, babysat and taught children with disabilities in the summers. She graduated from Lisbon High School in 2022. More than anything, she wanted to go to college, but thought it was cost-prohibitive. She applied for scholarships, got help from Jobs for Maine Graduates and finally had enough money to enter Thomas her freshman year.

But that first year was rough. She had medical issues and continues to see a neurologist, pulmonologist, and ear, nose and throat specialist. She suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and had to wear heart monitors her freshman year because of palpitations. She saw a Portland cardiologist. She became depressed and anxious.

“I started to run out of money and couldn’t afford to stay at Thomas,” she said. “I went to speak to Tony Staffiere, one of the most amazing people there. He is the assistant basketball coach and he was my academic coach at the time. I was like, ‘I’m not going to be able to swing it,’ and he was like, ‘No, that is not an option.'”

With help, she started applying for scholarships at Thomas and learned there had been a JMG scholarship she was supposed to have been awarded but wasn’t. She worked in the academic affairs office, continued at Dunkin’ and did marketing photography for the college. She also has, for the last five years, run her own successful photography business called “Through the Lens.” She finally secured enough money to finish out her four years and is on pace to graduate from Thomas in May with a bachelor’s in psychology and a minor in entrepreneurship.

Life has turned around, big time. Roach is set to do an internship in the spring as director of media for the Thomas baseball team. She and her boyfriend, senior Patrick Temby, a team captain, plan to move to his home country of Australia after they graduate. He will pursue a baseball career there, and she hopes to continue as a sports photographer.

For someone who arrived at college with little self-esteem and a lot of fear, Roach emerges a new person. She credits the transformation to Thomas where, in her freshman year, she traveled to places she had never been, such as Acadia National Park. She was so busy with health and family issues during her childhood, she never ventured far from home.

“When I got to Thomas, they completely changed my perspective and really put hope in me and helped me,” she said. “When I got out of my home and came up here, I got to experience my life.”

An upbeat, vibrant woman, Roach said her father is much better now and her mother, a teacher who earned a college degree online, also is doing well. They live in Richmond and are a very close-knit family, she said.

“I’m the first one in my family to leave home to go to college. I seriously didn’t think I’d be where I am now.”

Amy Calder has been a Morning Sentinel reporter 37 years. Her columns appear here Sundays. She is the author of the book, “Comfort is an Old Barn,” a collection of her curated columns, published in 2023 by Islandport Press. She may be reached at [email protected]. For previous Reporting Aside columns, go to centralmaine.com.