Nona Alumni: McKenzie Trujillo

Photo Credit: McKenzie Stewart WeddingsIn this recurring monthly special, Nonahood News will be featuring those who’ve graduated from Lake Nona High School and will recognize the achievements they’ve made since. Some will have been a part of the first graduating class. Others might have graduated a few years later. Few have stayed in the Lake Nona area, and many have explored the world or are still doing so. Let’s see where life’s journey has taken them so far!

Name: McKenzie Trujillo

Age: 24

Year Graduated: 2011

Occupation: Registered Nurse

Current Location: Orlando

This month, I caught up with former classmate McKenzie Trujillo. When we went to school together, she was McKenzie Loomis, but now she’s got a ring on her finger and a husband by her side.

“Since Lake Nona High School was not built until 2009, I attended Boone High School my freshman and sophomore years where I met the love of my life, Baylin. Looking back, I cannot believe the guy I met (but didn’t exchange names or numbers with) at Polyester Paradise (a school dance) my sophomore year would become my husband nine years later! The Monday after the dance, we both found out each other’s names and phone numbers through mutual friends. Ever since October 10, 2008 (our first date), I knew there was something special about Baylin.”

Once Mrs. Trujillo transferred to Lake Nona High for her junior and senior years, that led both her and Baylin to go their separate ways. “Although we were not together during my last year and a half of high school, or throughout my college years, I still considered Baylin to be my best guy friend during these years of my life. He was always the one. I just didn’t know that at the time! A year after graduating college, our paths crossed again, and I finally realized that God had put Baylin in my life eight years prior for a reason. My high school sweetheart was the one I was supposed to marry. I knew with no doubt that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. Three months after getting back together, Baylin proposed, and seven months after that, on June 3, 2017, we became husband and wife! I am very thankful that I get to spend the rest of life with my best friend; June 3rd will always be a special day. So now I am a wife and a nurse, as well as a fur mom to our golden retriever fur baby Miss Bella.”

McKenzie and her family originally moved to the Lake Nona area in October 2003, the beginning of her fifth-grade year. “We moved to Orlando for my dad’s job as he is a Southwest Airlines pilot, and Orlando is one of the bases my parents were interested in at the time. I lived with my parents throughout my college years. After graduating, I moved out of my parents’ house but still chose to stay in Lake Nona until getting married last June!”

While a student at Lake Nona, Trujillo’s post-high school goals were to attend college, earn a degree and have a career within five years. “At the time, I did not know specifically what I wanted to do for a living, but I did know I wanted to make a difference in the lives of others. I remember questioning going into the medical field after taking biology at the college level my senior year, and for a period of time, I thought I wanted to study early childhood education. It didn’t take long to discover that I don’t have enough patience to be a teacher, and I later realized that becoming a nurse was what I wanted to do.”

Once she figured out that becoming a nurse was what her heart was set on, Trujillo did not delay. “After graduating from Lake Nona in 2011, I was able to achieve the goals I had set for myself! I was accepted into Florida Atlantic University, but I decided instead to stay in Orlando and attend Valencia College, where I completed my prerequisites for nursing. In 2013, I applied for and was accepted into University of Central Florida’s College of Nursing, where I spent my last two years of college, graduating with my Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Before graduating in May 2015, I accepted the position I have now as a RN at Winnie Palmer Hospital contingent upon passing the NCLEX. On July 1, 2015, I passed my boards (NCLEX), earning my license as a registered nurse! Later that same month, I began working at Winnie!”

The Winnie Palmer Hospital is for women and babies, and Trujillo loves her job as a Registered Nurse there. “I work on a mother/baby postpartum unit. I love caring for new mommies, babies, and their families during one of the most special times in their lives. This was definitely a ‘dream job’ of mine when I was applying; two and a half years later, I couldn’t ask for anything better.”

Some of her current goals in life are to purchase a home and to apply for graduate school. When asked about where she sees herself in the next five years, she reminisces a bit before responding. “Wow, it is crazy to think that five years from now Lake Nona Class of 2011 will have been graduated for almost 12 years. I hope to have celebrated a 10-year reunion with all of my former classmates. Depending on our jobs, I see myself either moving to a new city or staying in Orlando to raise a family. I would love to see myself become a mother in the next five years. I have always dreamed of having little ones running around. Baylin and I have discussed having children in three to four years from now, Lord willing. We would love to have three healthy kids; I know Baylin definitely hopes to have a boy someday. I also see myself growing in my career as a nurse. I would like to attend graduate school and become a Family Nurse Practitioner within the next five years.”

With lots of accomplishments taking place in her life within the last couple of years, Trujillo plans on having even more in her future, all with her husband by her side. “At work, I became the Chair of our Unit Nurse Practice Council, which is a group on our unit that has the mission to address issues that significantly impact the quality, safety, and effectiveness of nursing practice. I became a wife. Marriage is not always easy and, from what I have heard from other married couples, the first year is the most difficult. Being only eight months into marriage, I have already learned that having God at the center is the most important key along with having patience, selflessness and communication. But even though marriage is challenging at times, it is the greatest happiness! I am most looking forward to all of the adventures we have yet to share together and then looking back and reminiscing on everything 60 years to come as we share those memories with our children and grandchildren.”