By Georgia Mallett

Ellensburg High School

For Faith Lindsey, a trip to St. Louis this spring helped her find her direction.

“I want to make sure that no one’s voice goes unheard,” Lindsey said. “The trip made me realize my purpose and recognize what I needed to do to make actual change you can see.”

She thought the trip with the Muhammad Ali Center student council in Louisville would make her feel enraged by seeing the chaos and corruption in disenfranchised communities. Instead, Lindsey said she was calm, ready to take on the world:

“I can do this.”

A big part of Lindsey’s purpose is wanting to fight for justice in this country. “The world sucks! It really does,” she says in a serious yet sarcastic tone.

“The United States has too many standards of what people should or shouldn’t be and that’s crazy,” said Lindsey, 15, a rising sophomore at Louisville’s duPont Manual High School. “Rules aren’t always needed because the human heart isn’t a place of hate and evil. You aren’t born that way.”

Lindsey’s teacher called her an anarchist because of these beliefs. But Lindsey said anarchy would be only possible “if the world started over again.”

The main problem that needs to be addressed in the U.S. is racial social segregation, in Lindsey’s opinion. “It isn’t allowing people to be the best they can be,” she said.

“I speak up a lot,” Lindsey said frankly. “I am not afraid to ask questions. I say what is on my mind and combat what people say. I am equipped with the facts and knowledge to do so and I am not going to lessen myself to make people feel uncomfortable.”

Lindsey grew up in Chicago with her mother, father and brother while her father attended DePaul University in Chicago. After he finished school, they moved to Louisville.

She said she loves her family with all her heart. She elaborates on her love for her parents and her relationship with her brother. “We had problems,” she said, looking back. “He could be cruel.”

Lindsey’s parents kicked her brother out of the house because of his defiance, onto the streets of Chicago. She said she stood up for him and begged for him to come back despite the tense relationship.

“It taught me how to love people even when they don’t show the same love back,” Lindsey said, smiling. “Even if people aren’t nice to you, you can stay nice to them … It showed me the basic form of loving people truly.”

Lindsey said that the love for her friends and family, along with the example the powerful women in her family set, inspired her to try to be the best woman she can be.

“I have been taught and observed by the women who have raised me,” she said. “Women are just so beautiful and so powerful and it amazes me what women can do.”

Lindsey prides herself on communication.

“I have a God-given talent to be able to connect with people no matter who they are,” she said. “I don’t consider myself very vulnerable because I’m pretty open. I don’t let things overwhelm me.”