Regan Jones
Ms. Lei Lani Michel
English 1001
8 October 2007

We all have our familiar hurricane Katrina stories filled with loss, despair, and no apparent light at the end of the tunnel. For some, it was a bad situation turned worse; for others, what at first seemed as a no way out type of story turned into the best possible outcome despite the road blocks in place. As I ventured out for a positive, influential character set in the backdrop of the worst natural disaster to ever to hit the U.S. Mac Alsfeld is a nineteen-year old sophomore at LSU who also has a similar story to many New Orleans residents. I met him through the fraternity that I am currently pledging. Born and raised in New Orleans, Mac was forced to relocate into a new town as a result of the damages hurricane Katrina left on his home. Prior to this, it was his senior year at Jesuit High School; but due to his high school reopening in Houston, Texas, his family decided to enroll him in University High School of Baton Rouge. Despite the move to a new school, Mac found himself adapting quickly with his new classmates and a new Baton Rouge lifestyle.
The first thing that stood out to me was his demeanor towards fraternity rushing. He went through the motions, preaching to me all the B.S. things he was obligated to say in hopes that I would pledge his fraternity. I could tell he was a character right off the bat, always having something to say, never seeming to shut up. Mac is the type of guy to crack a joke even in the most serious of situations. Everyone sees him as off the wall and a crazy, lovable goofball. Alongside him is his big brother Clark, who seems as more of a sidekick rather than a responsible older sibling. I caught him telling a story to some of the others going through rush about his younger brother clogging the toilet of his aunt’s personal yacht as Mac kept chiming in with this own defense to the attack. They seemed to make an impression throughout the room, during the early days of rush.
Hockey in my opinion is more of northern sport that does not particularly interest me too much. Mac has been playing hockey for most of his life, and he made me promise that I write about his all-star days in the sport. He plays both roller and ice hockey, and in his own words is currently the best player to ever play the sport. When Mac was in high school his roller hockey team was number two in the nation his sophomore and junior year. He also went on to add that the only reason they were not number one was because he had gotten hurt, and missed a few games. If Mac would have been playing, he expressed that the champ could have won them by himself. I personally think he is just full of bull on all this, but he was adamant about me portraying him as the “best hockey player of all time”.
Mac also is extremely involved in the filming industry. He is currently employed by the production company Louisiana Media Productions. He has worked with countless high profile celebrities such as Bernie Mac, Ciara, and Frankie Muniz. Throughout his childhood, Mac grew up making homemade movies with his friends and family. He comes from a home that is also highly involved in the filming industry. As a side project, his dad owns a production company that is currently producing the new Reggie Bush commercials. His aunt is fairly well-known actress, Patricia Clarkson, who has been featured in over thirty films. Mac hopes to one day own and operate his own production company.
As this hockey legend turned film god went to show me a couple of his movies that he had created, I quickly realized his films were more than just his talk. They exhibited the experience that he holds in his hobby. He wrote, filmed, and edited each of his videos. Mac told me that he mostly did these for fun or school projects. With his major being English I began to wonder why he is not a film major or chose a school that offers that. He said he has always loved to write, and the experience of working at a real production company would teach him more than any film school could. With LSU not offering film as a major, English relates the most to it.
The conversation took a dramatic turn when I brought up the topic of his evacuation during hurricane Katrina. He and his whole family decided to pick up and move everything to his older sister’s two bedroom apartment on LSU’s campus. Mac, his mom, his dad, his dog Tootsie, and a Kenner politician were squeezed into a college type apartment with his sister of two and a half months. The one positive event during this time was his enrollment into University High School. This kept him busy all day rather than sitting around dwelling on the situation he was facing. Mac’s grandmother was a city councilwoman for New Orleans and the only politician to stay during the storm with Mayor Nagan. He said “My whole family was really scared. We did not hear from her for a week or so, and had no clue as to what had happened to her.” Once his grandmother returned to safety in Baton Rouge, Mac’s family felt somewhat at ease with the situation. His home was damaged during the hurricane when his neighbor’s tree was thrown through his house, but the Kenner politician they sheltered provided them with early access into the city to check on there home. The daunting task would come later in their lives when the Alsfeld’s used the summer to rebuild their home. Mac turned what could have been a cry for help senior year into some of the best days of his high school career. He expressed his deepest respect and appreciation for the students of UHigh for taking him in, accepting him, and distracting him from the real terrors that most of his other friends faced when they relocated with Jesuit to Houston. He ended what he described to me as an incredible year when Mac graduated from University High School.
My perception of my interviewee has changed since I met him a few months back. At first I saw him as simply a comical, comfortably outgoing goof ball. He was always cracking a joke no matter what the situation became, and gave his thought on everything within the realm of stupidity crossed with his own take on factuality. After my interview with him, I came to realize he is much more than just a regular frat guy. Mac is an extremely talented writer and filmmaker who will one day be producing high budget movies with star actors. His family went through great hardships in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. I know that any normal teenager would have a hard time moving to a new school and meeting hundreds of new people. Mac said by the time he graduated, his reputation got him the votes as the class clown and hairiest boy at University High School. It sounds like he sure made a fast impression in a short amount of time. I would have never expected him to be such an “all-star” hockey player, as he put it. Sometimes you can not judge a person until you walk a mile in his shoes, but a walk from New Orleans to Baton Rouge in the shoes of a senior high school student that has to support the weight of a city and a lifestyle completely uprooted from his sense of normalcy can show that the true heart of a man is not revealed until he responds to a life changing event. I guess some things are not always what they seem until you get to know them.