Lindsey's Story

Lindsey and I met each other through HearingExchange on Facebook several months ago and we got to know each other through sending each other messages. Lindsey has a very interesting perspective as a CI user as she was raised with the oral approach but immersed herself in the deaf culture later in life. Here is Lindsey’s story:

Lindsey Phelan is the name people know me as, but if you know me well, I’d prefer to be called ‘Linds’. Being eighteen years old and a senior in high school is definitely an accomplishment, because I cannot believe I am graduating from high school in a few short weeks!

I currently attend Watkinson School; a small private school located in Hartford, CT. I transferred here for my senior year, and it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I attended the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD) in Washington D.C. in my sophomore and junior years of high school. I do not regret my experiences there for they have helped me better understand myself. Overall, it was interesting to witness everything I saw. I even got a chance to see what Gallaudet students protested against last fall when they overthrew the new elected president, JKF. I will never forget all the experiences I had while at MSSD.

Sadly enough, I found out people there were not wholeheartedly supportive of the fact that I had a cochlear implant. I used it in the beginning but after awhile, the peer pressure was so immense that I stopped using my cochlear implant altogether for a long while. I decided to use it at home, obviously, but when I told my parents, the news hurt them dearly. They respected my decision yet they always tried to convince me to use my cochlear implant at school.

Often enough, my parents wonder if they made the right decision to raise me as an oral kid. Years of speech therapy and one on one time spent on learning spoken English skills paid off immensely as I am now able to function and communicate well enough in the hearing world. However, when I was ten, they let me learn American Sign Language. I have embraced ASL and the deaf culture since then. When I was younger, I mostly signed in signed English, but I learned ASL through ASD and MSSD. It’s an experience I am grateful for because I learned so much there, as well as a newfound appreciation for who I am as a person.

With only a short time left of my high school years, I am anxiously waiting for graduation along with trying to make an informed decision about college. You may ask why I didn’t apply to Gallaudet, but I think my MSSD years offered me the taste of what Gallaudet may be like. I applied to several colleges and universities on the East Coast of the United States. I did apply to RIT/NTID, and have chosen not to attend there for it is mostly technical. It is down to my final top two choices: University of Vermont (UVM) located in Burlington, Vermont and McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. UVM offers all the services I need, i.e. CART, Typewell (similar to CART, but on a laptop), notetakers, ASL interpreter, writing tutors and etc while McDaniel will do so the same (will either do one or the other with student notetaker). I ended up choosing McDaniel College (go green terrors!) for their small liberal arts programs and class sizes. It also has the graduate deaf program for those interested in pursuing a masters in education. I feel that will be the best environment for me. :]

Cant wait for graduation!
Thanks for reading this! If you have any questions for me, feel free to ask!
<3 Linds