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Megan Cochran

Talks Balls and Babies

By: Olivia Provan, Spotlight

Issue date: 3/7/08 Section: Spotlight
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Tall enough to ride?
Tall enough to ride?
Although she claims to be 5'1'', Megan Cochran's height remains open for debate. While she may not always stick out in a crowd, this Minnesota native holds her own with the big boys. Whether talking Jesus or arguing politics, her accent is hard to miss. We sat down with "Balls" herself to find out what it feels like when you suddenly realize your life calling.

MW: Tell us a little about your hometown. Where did you grow up?

MC: My childhood was pretty awesome. I grew up in Albert Lea, Minnesota, about 50 miles south of here. It's a town of 18,000 people; it's really conservative, and segregated, like seriously. I had a really great group of friends there, all guys. I only hung out with guys because girls were too catty for me. We were kind of the alternative group; we were the cool kids in town. We like to refer to ourselves as the AL Crew.

Why AL Crew?

Basically, we were the alternative cool kids. You know how it is. A lot of my friends were into garage bands and that kind of punk scene. We had to be creative because our town was so lame. We just started calling ourselves the AL Crew after we went to college just to refer to the whole gang. Wow, I sound like a tool.

Was it total culture shock being from Albert Lea, which you said was conservative, to Macalester?

Macalester was totally different than what I was used to. I definitely understood my political views a lot better when I had to be the underdog in a conservative town. All my friends are conservative but alternative. My family was also really conservative, that's the way we were raised. I had to be really informed about my political beliefs because I had to be able to back them up in arguments constantly. I was really active in politics in high school. I help start a group in my high school, The Young Progressives. We would throw these political punk rock concerts. A bunch of bands from all over Minnesota came. We invited a bunch of politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, from the surrounding areas to come and speak. Our main objective was to get everyone to agree to run fair and clean elections.

Have your political views changed at all since you came to college?

I have become a lot less politically involved. I kind of fall back on the beliefs of the people around me. It's just easy to assume that the people around me here pretty much share my opinions on most things. It has been kind of a safe haven in a way. I'm not sure that it's always a good things, I'm probably not as informed or as involved. But I still get to debate with my dad when I go home, so whatevs.
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