Lindsay Vogel

Lindsay V.

With her quirky personality and unique soulful and angelic country twang Lindsay V was driven to prove that she can do anything she put her mind to. Born and raised in Baltimore Maryland the diversity of people interested Lindsay in wanting to know about many cultures and lives. Exploring her love for people and music she knew she wanted to be and was going to be a success. Quoted “I don’t cant where you’re from or how much money you have or don’t have, it’s what you bring to the table, and anyone can do anything they put their mind to.”

To say the least Lindsay had a bit of a rough start to her childhood, At age 9 her parents got divorced, she was diagnosed with Trichotillomania, add, learning disabilities, Tourette’s, she was made fun of in school, struggled tremendously, but through all of that she did not let any of those “labels” to make her as these were not her, yet they were a gift she had yet unlocked.

When Lindsay was 15 she left Baltimore to go to a boarding school where was kicked out for going against the school rules. ‘I was a bit of a rebel but I did it for attention”. She then went back home to enroll in Delany high for a month, struggled in school when her father gave Lindsay an option to stay in school or go to a wilderness program with other kids her age.

Lindsay decided to go to the wilderness program in North Carolina in January. It was the hardest thing she had ever done yet the most rewarding and best experience of her life. She climbed and hiked in the snow over 15-20 miles a week. , if they couldn’t spark a fire, they couldn’t eat. They were assigned to trees on where to set up their camp, slept in sleeping bags on the ground. After 57 days she graduated by making a coal out of a bow drill she made and accomplishing her mouse trap goals with just twine, sticks, and rock.

After she graduated she then went off to a boarding school she was very unhappy about and states although she was completely misplaced there was a reason she went and that was to be exactly where she is today. The boarding school was not only abusive but it was shut down after just a year and a half of her stay there due to parents finding out what really went on in those schools. She states “it was pretty much like juvi, and there was no reason why half the kids who were there were there other then there social worker was paid a large cut due to the relationship they had with the CEDU schools.

We had 30 min phone calls a few times a week and if we stated to tell our parents what was really going on the councilors would hang up our phone calls. There were some pretty crazy things that we saw and occurred at the school” “ I did although make friends with one of my councilors who then brought me in to her home to live for a month after the school shut down as I didn’t have anywhere else to go”. After a month, Lindsay moved into a girl’s home called the Wardle house in Bonners Ferry ID. This home she states was really where the transition happened in her life. “I was so blessed and fortunate to have lived with this incredible family. I owe everything to Theresa and Patrick who helped me become the women I am today. She was a tough cookie! But I needed it!” “It was a family and I honestly never felt like I was ever a part of a family that loved me as much as they did at the time. We all had our own rooms, we could be individual and be ourselves. In the school we had to earn our colors, earn labels on our clothes and even if we spoke to a friend to long they would put us on bans which means we couldn’t talk to one another for however long they felt like putting us on bans for. There were bans for everything you could even imagine and every time we would make a mistake they would put us in a corner and have us write our life story over and over again. It was ludicrous and made so sense as it stole the uniqueness of each person attempting to make themselves better and find themselves especially at that age.” She states. “Theresa and Patrick had a beautiful home they build, a beautiful little girl named Moureen and 2 twins on the way. I made amazing friends and relationships and learned a lot living with them.

Attending the last 2 years in high school, at Bonners ferry high in Idaho Lindsay sang in her school choir and performed in world known play Oklahoma as Aunt Eller. Senior year in 2007 Lindsay woke up and discovered she couldn’t talk nor sing. As she quotes “when I would talk my voice would work than cut out of air; I felt as though I was being choked” Not understanding what was wrong, she flew back to Baltimore to have her throat checked out. Later on was diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia, which involves difficulty speaking because of repetitive or continuous contraction.

Now, not being able to sing, she could no longer be in choir. A possible permanent change in her life resulted in lots of writing and her book which is currently in production.

After being told by many doctors it would be a struggle to ever ta