When I read the course summary for a history class offered at Clarkson called "Voices of the Past," I immediately fell in love. "Listening to real voices from the past makes history come alive! Oral history is an exciting way to uncover and hear forgotten or often overlooked voices and stories from the past!" the course description boasted. I immediately enrolled. Early in the semester, I learned that our final project for the course would involve conducting a series of interviews on a topic of our choice and integrating them into a paper, website, or blog. Almost immediately after being given the assignment, I already knew two things: 1. I desperately wanted to merge two of my passions, psychology and history, and 2. I wanted to focus on the fascinating, and widely unknown, past Upstate New York has in relation to psychiatry in the United States. While doing early research on the St. Lawrence State Hospital, I found the relationship between the North Country community and the institution fascinating, and with that my thesis was born!