Week 18: Laura Carlson

Home state: Michigan
Status: Sophomore
Year on club: 2
College: College of Education
​Major: Kinesiology

When Laura filled this survey out last year, she had just finished running the half-marathon at NIRCA Nationals. With this, she described the half as her favorite race. This year, however, Laura is thinking about competing in regular track events. Laura says "If possible, I would spend every day of my life at a beach playing volleyball, drinking beer, reading some Hemingway and getting a good burn. Aside from that, I have season tickets to Spartan football and hockey. As far as sports go, I'm best at sleeping, then golfing, and finally, running."  The picture to the left shows Laura at the 2015 end-of-season track banquet. Laura was awarded the Carlson Carlson paper plate. She was also voted most improved among all of the members. Below is an exclusive interview with Laura. ​

RC: "What do you enjoy about running?"
LC: "I like getting my stress out. It keeps my sanity."
RC: "Do you have sanity?"
LC: "You know, there’s points in time where I probably don’t, but after a run I feel better. It’s definitely somewhat there. And the Carlson Carlson thing? I enjoyed my last name so much that I wanted it to be my first name."
RC: "Oh, come on. That isn’t the story. What actually is the story behind the Carlson Carlson ID thing?"
LC: "Okay, so during AOP I didn’t send in a picture. When the woman asked me what I would prefer to be called, she was like “Would you prefer to be called Carlson.” And I’m thinking in my head, like “Yes, that’s my last name.” She didn’t tell me that she meant it to be my nickname though. So, hence, the Carlson Carlson name. I just go along with it."
RC: "So when you hand people your ID they think your name is Carlson Carlson?"
LC: "Yeah. I get a lot of weird looks from the ID people in the caf, especially when they say my name. You know, there’s one of those people at Shaw. She actually talked to me about it. And she like, made a line. There was this line of people waiting and she asked me about my name tag. She asked me if it was really Carlson."
RC: "What did you say?"
LC: "I said no. Also, my real name is on the back of my ID, so she could have just looked at that. And then she was like “Okay, I’ll start calling you by your first name. And then a couple of days after, I went back there and she still called me Carlson. So I was like, okay! Thanks for remembering!"
RC: "Would you like the running club to call you Carlson?"
LC: "Um, I don’t really care. As long as it’s not something derogatory or mean or makes me cry at night. I don’t want to be called stupid, or butthead, or AL."
RC: "I like the name AL."
LC: "But yeah I don’t really care; people can call me Carlson. I mean, it’s whatever people like. I’m not picky. As long as I know that you call me that. Otherwise, I won’t respond to you."

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