Carlie McAlister isn’t a campus celeb in the traditional sense because she doesn’t have a title behind her name such as president or captain. She is simply Miss Carlie McAlister, a Fashion Merchandising student at UNL, who always embraces her background and, which is something important to be recognized for. Knowing these key facts, I asked Carlie if she would open up to me, at which point she agreed without hesitation.
Carlie McAlister spent a majority of her childhood in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. By the time she was only two years old she had put on her first pair of figure skates, and it wasn’t long after that, that she began competitively figure skating. Because of her larger-than-life dreams of going to the Olympics and outstanding skill, her family moved her to Denver, Colorado to advance her career. Unfortunately, by the time she was thirteen years old she had suffered two major ankle injuries due to major growth spurts. After the second injury she went back out on the ice, to which she realized that she would never be able to skate the way she once did. At this point she was forced to put up her skates and try her hand at some of other things, which included storm chasing, horses and fashion.
At UNL in particular, she is involved with the storm chasing team and occasionally attends meetings to learn more about the technology used to keep people safe and she admitted to finding a certain amount of excitement from following tornados and seeing them touch down. Among other exciting adventures, she is also involved in the Rodeo Club to ride horses obviously, but also to bring back the feeling of closeness with a horse that she misses from her family’s ranch back in Wyoming.
The way that Carlie lives her life reminds me of a quote that my grandpa always says to, which is, “There is a difference between being alive and living.” It’s safe to say that Carlie is doing just that, living.