Lindsay: My Story

My earliest memories are full of the essence of New York City.  Dirty water dogs, salty, sweaty hands polishing off a soft pretzel at the Central Park Zoo, and the cool yet smelly respite of "the penguin house" in the heat of the day: my childhood.

We lived in Queens, New York.  I had four siblings, a rather large family for the city, and when we entered the public school, we were called "the goldilocks family." Out of the eighty different ethnic groups in P.S. 22, we had some very rare blond hair. I loved every minute of being different.
When I was five, my grandfather, Papa, gave my mother the soundtrack for Les Miserables. By the age of six, I had every song memorized, except the two my mother always made us skip... At six, I decided my life's goal was to be Eponine or Cosette.
Also at six, I got saved.  My daddy was a pastor and I was inquisitive and sat at the kitchen table with him and he helped me pray: an eternally valid six-year-old prayer.
So, at six, I knew my purpose: Broadway.
I knew my eternity was set.
Great things were coming. The city was mine.

Then, suddenly, my family moved to Ohio. It was after my tenth birthday, and the sameness of everything nearly suffocated me.  I wore my brilliantly colored bell bottoms and my bright city clothes were my pride. They kept me close to the memory of my city... where I was something special... but they didn't get a warm reception among my new peers.

My each of my
classmates wore a tee shirt and jeans, more specifically a gap tee shirt and Levi's... Needless to say, I didn't fit in very well. But the "different" that I used to love became a different that broke me.  Students would stand in circles behind me on the playground, calling out "seventies girl" and "hippie girl" (not the worst names a child could think of) Reading alone on the swing, with a name-calling crowd behind me, didn't do much for my transition.  The country was much more difficult than the city.  I missed my city. I begged my mom to home school me. She had to work.

The desire for Broadway didn't leave me as I went through school in Ohio, it merely intensified.  I started taking voice lessons in eighth grade, and ballet the following year.  I was now old enough to work and pay for my own lessons, and that is where my money went. (Where your treasure is, your heart will be also). 

But fame, city and Broadway were the major purpose for my life. 

At the age of sixteen, I auditioned and was accepted into a major performing arts school.

I would have to leave home. But I was ready!

Just like Caleb, when my parents expressed doubts about me being ready to enter the world, I tried to convince them I could bring Jesus to Broadway!!! I could be His witness!

After much prayer and conversation, my mother told me it was not yet time for me to leave home. I cried myself to sleep for weeks and didn't forgive her for years.

But I cried out to God. For the first time. And life stopped being about me.

That has made all the difference.