Silas Vogel

A remarkably shy person, Silas will not socialize unless he is forced to, and even then, who knows? While getting to know him can be a monumental task, he is a sweet, nurturing, and insightful person: he isn't majoring in psychology for nothing. But while there is plenty to appreciate underneath his quiet exterior, when nobody is perceptive enough to appreciate it first semester, he finds himself lonely and insecure in an unfamiliar place.

18-22

Mild-mannered, subdued. Sweet and polite. Speaks quietly. Has a sort of shrinking posture.

A desire to understand the world around him, and a desire to be understood.

Avoidant, weak-willed, pessimistic

Exceedingly kind-natured and patient. He is willing to lend a sympathetic ear or a shoulder to cry on to anyone, even people he doesn't particularly like. He's also very intuitive.

He doesn't like to judge anyone too quickly, but he's bothered by selfishness, self-centeredness, and greed (as most people are). Also, if you say you're "not an animal person," he'll trust you less.

Great with animals and children (almost supernaturally great). Good listener. Gives thoughtful advice.

Reading, hiking, skiing, playing with his cat

INFP 2w1

Migraine disorder, asthma, social anxiety, depression

Pisces Sun, Cancer Rising, Virgo Moon

Being in the spotlight

Fluffy animals, sweaters, snow, hot tea with honey

Large crowds, phone calls, being pressured into things

Gay, but not yet out: he's only just realized it, since he's so rarely had romantic interest in people over the years.

Jewish

Very left-leaning.

Psychology student, coffeehouse cashier at home

Lavender

Strawberries

A teddy-bear keychain that he keeps on his backpack.

When he was lost in the woods with Clover, he found a really big stick and whittled a point out of the tip with a bread knife. It wasn't ideal, but it was a more effective weapon than the bread knife itself. Still, like August, he errs on the side of defense rather than offense.

Deer, bunnies, mice, rats, and cats (especially his cat, Bunny. Ha, ha, ha)

03/19/2000

Silas grew up in Stowe, Vermont, about 45 minutes from Ames. His father David Vogel is an actuary, and his mother Maggie Abramowitz was previously a math teacher. His parents had a strained marriage; they were high school sweethearts who married almost immediately after graduating university, despite not being particularly compatible. David leaned conservative, Maggie leaned progressive. Maggie liked to read, David did not. Maggie valued honesty, David cheated on her repeatedly throughout their relationship. When Silas was five, David had to get knee surgery after a skiing accident and became addicted to his prescribed Percocet. He had always been somewhat distant with his family, but now he was violent, and one day, when he slapped Maggie during an argument, she decided to file for divorce. Maggie and David separated when Silas was six, and Maggie gained full custody of him. David went to rehab when Silas was seven, and Maggie quit her job teaching so that she could work from home.

Silas was always a quiet child, disliking the tense clamor of his home, not wanting to contribute to it or worsen it in any way. He had trouble making friends in school and was often scared to introduce himself. However, in first grade when his father left, he began to develop a much closer relationship with his mother, which gave him a small boost of confidence, and he had a couple of acquaintances throughout elementary school and middle school. Still, he felt safer observing his classmates than interacting with them. He preferred sitting alone and reading to playing games at recess. He was, however, very empathetic and had a special connection with animals, and he won the respect of his classmates on the playground one day in third grade by picking up and holding a pigeon; the creature remained completely calm, as did he. This was one of the few times in his life that he ever got in trouble.

Come middle school, Silas had developed a fascination with psychology. It was comforting to him to learn how people's minds worked, and how to help them, especially as David was recovering from his addiction and started dating a woman named Sarah. Silas often met his father for lunch on the weekends, and during these meetings, David would go into detail about his recovery and personal life to a degree perhaps slightly too intense for the average 12-year-old. However, Silas had a calming demeanor and remained thoughtful and relaxed during these conversations, and he was pleased that his father was impressed by his insightfulness. Maggie would often vent her frustrations to Silas as well, also to a somewhat inappropriate degree (though she had few other people to talk about her problems with), and he would respond with a similar tact and compassion. Silas became used to being a sounding-board, becoming moderately more comfortable in social situations where he was treated like a diary. When Silas was in eighth grade, David and Sarah married.

In high school, while not popular by any means, he fell into a friendship with a girl named Mira, who liked his sweet nature and particularly liked to talk about her problems with him. She also had feelings for him, and kissed him at their 10th grade homecoming, a memory that he is not fond of, but he didn't want to hurt her feelings. His freshman year of high school, Sarah had given birth to Jonah, and his lunch conversations with David grew more difficult for him, as David referred to Sarah and Jonah as his "second chance." Maggie was also hurt by this phraseology, which Silas knew because she talked about it frequently. Though he was observant by nature and good at soothing people, Silas began to feel like the only identity he had was listening to other people. At this point, he asked his mom if he could start seeing a therapist, and he did. Therapy was particularly difficult for him, since he struggled to talk about himself. However, he would often talk about therapy itself with his therapist, and this solidified to him that he wanted to go into the field of mental health. After a year or so, he had developed slightly more of a sense of self, remembering how much he loved to read as a child and nurturing his love for animals by volunteering at the local shelter, and began to distance himself from Mira (who he never wanted to kiss again).

He was happier by the end of his senior year, and felt less constant pressure to provide solace to people, but he was also lonelier than he had ever been, and this began to hurt. He decided to go to Ames simply because his mother had and it was fairly nearby, but he hoped that perhaps he could finally try to form some real, close friendships in spite of his shyness and over-cautiousness in his relationships. After his first semester, when this didn't quite happen, he enrolled in Mysteries of Ames, thinking it might give him a bit of a boost.

140 lbs

5'8

Blonde

Fluffy mop, bangs brushed away from his face

Brown

Fair

Average, soft but small

Ivory soap

Romantic

Soft Summer

Below Average

Very High

Average

Average

High

Average

Lavender, for both the appearance and the smell.

The Truman Show. "It's actually really relevant now, what with how we all edit ourselves for social media and--" yeah, yeah we get it Mr. Psych Major :)

Orlando Bloom

Jesse, actually.

His friend Mira frenched him at a high school dance. He just sort of let her. That's the only kiss he's had in his life.

He doesn't drink often, but when he does, he'll take something very watered down.

Berry hard seltzer; not White Claw, something less well-known. Sweet, unfussy, and so mild that the more stringent alcohol flavor is often imperceptible.

Not really. His voice isn't bad, but it's even harder for him to sing loudly than it is for him to speak loudly.

Before he took AP Psych (which was by far his best class), he was good at history and most science courses.

Plush pajama pants and a hoodie or sweatshirt, sometimes even socks. He likes to be cozy.

"Nothing, I'm sorry."

(Promptly exits the room with his head in his hands.)

Fairly sensitive, but he doesn't show this any more often than he shows any other facet of his personality.

"Raaalph, did you eat my tater tots?" and the one where she puts the flower on the cat's head and then the voiceover goes "the prophecy...is true" you KNOW the one I'm not doing a good job of describing it!

He's baffled by this, because he literally doesn't interact with people he doesn't have to outside of an academic and professional context. He ponders why this might be, and comes to the conclusion that his shyness makes him seem standoffish. Then, he has a mini breakdown about it, because his shyness stems partially from a fear of pissing people off, and now he's pissed someone off with his shyness, so what the heck is he supposed to do? Is there no way to win here?

Functional, tending towards disaster.

Depressed.

Color in Your Cheeks - The Mountain Goats
For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti - Sufjan Stevens
Who Will Save Your Soul - Jewel
Midnight City - M83
Eleventeen - Kimya Dawson

Much like Silas, I was an armchair psychologist in middle school.