IML: What an amazing year you’ve had! On your album, the song Lessons Learned talks about how you can’t rewrite the past and you’ve just got to learn from your experiences. What are some lessons you’ve learned over this past year?

Carrie: I’ve learned it’s really important to work hard and keep your family and friends close. You’ve got to let them know how much you appreciate them for sticking by you.

IML: What do you value in a friend?

Carrie: They have to be trustworthy and a person who, if it’s two in the morning and you really need to talk to someone, will pick up the phone and be glad to talk to you.

IML: If you could look back on your childhood, what would you say was the toughest time?

Carrie: It would be junior high maybe, because when you are little, everyone is your friend and you are everybody else’s friend. You don’t really know any better! But when you get older, things start getting a little weird. Boys start getting weird. Everybody starts growing up. You’re not really a kid anymore and you’re not an adult. Things are just different.

IML: Most IML’ers are dealing with that right now. What advice would you give them?

Carrie: Know who your best friends are, people who’ll never betray you. Things might seem rough, but they’ll very soon get better. When you’re 22, like me, none of that will happen. And find someone older you can talk about stuff with, just one person you can tell anything to, who won’t blab your secrets. Any older sibling or just someone you know you can trust.

IML: You’ve gone from being a regular gal to a full-on celebrity really quickly. What advice would you give to a person who feels jealous of his or her friend’s success?

Carrie: I think it’s okay to feel jealous, but it’s how you deal with it that’s the important thing. You have to be happy for your friends when they do well because you want them to do well. It’s not a competition. Just because something might look good for them right now doesn’t mean that next year, next month, next week things might not happen for you too. And you want your friends to be happy for you when you’re doing well.

IML: How has your journalism degree helped you in the last year?

Carrie: It helps me when answering questions, especially on camera, because that’s what I’m used to. I know what the reporters are looking for and I also know when they’re trying to make me say something bad. They’ll ask me some hot button question, something to get myself in trouble!

IML: We hear you’ve always been dedicated to volunteering. What kind of work have you done in the past?

Carrie: I did most of my volunteer work when I was in college because I knew of more ways to get involved. In high school, we’d do things like there was a homeless shelter near our hometown and our church group decorated one of the rooms. In college, I was in a sorority and we did a lot of things, like pick up trash on the highway. I was also a hospice volunteer and I got that through the sorority. You go and take care of people that are really sick. They don’t want to be in the hospital anymore. It’s just kind of about making them comfortable. So, I’d go and sit with them. I had one couple that I was a volunteer for and we’d just, you know, watch soap operas for a couple hours!

IML: Sometimes they just want company, right?

Carrie: Oh yeah. Well, my main job was just to give the family a break. I’d come over and just hang out, and they’d go grocery shopping and exercise. I do think it’s important to get involved in some way. You can get a couple cans together that you know you won’t eat and give it to a food drive, or donate your clothes to a mission. There are a lot of little things you can do.

IML: When you were a kid, what kind of exercise did you do?

Carrie: Growing up, I played softball and I was a cheerleader. Mostly just being outside. If you’re outside, it’s hard not to be running around.

IML: On American Idol, it seemed that dancing wasn’t one of your favorite things.

Carrie: No, I’m really not a good dancer. I dance around the house when I’m alone, but not in public!

IML: Throughout your new album, there seems to be a theme of being homesick and feeling a little like outsider, in songs like Don’t Forget to Remember Me, Jesus Take the Wheel, and I Ain’t in Checotah Anymore. How do you deal with the craziness of the world you’re in now?

Carrie: Oh my goodness. I do miss home a lot, but I take a lot of it with me. I call home every day and talk to my sisters. I do get back as much as I can. And I always have with me two stuffed animals from home, a teddy bear and a stuffed lion!

IML: What is it like to be a vegetarian when you come from a farming community?

Carrie: I quit eating beef when I was about thirteen. I kind of phased everything out, so it took a few years actually. I do it because I really love animals and it just makes me sad. Like, I don’t like to watch commercials where they have meat. It weirds me out. But it’s not something I like to preach to anyone. I mean, my family, they all eat meat and I don’t ever try to sway their opinions, but it’s hard sometimes, especially because I live in the South and I did grow up in a farming community. I’ve had people approach my parents and they’ll say, “I hear your daughter is a vegetarian. What’s she doing? That’s how we make a living.” My mom’s just, “Well, that’s her decision.” She used to get mad though. She’d cook dinner and I wouldn’t eat it.

IML: In your song, I Ain’t In Checotah Anymore, you sing that you’d rather be tipping cows in Tulsa than hailing cabs in New York. Have you really tipped cows?

Carrie: That’s a common misperception. I’m pretty sure cows can’t be tipped. It’s what we tell the city folks!

IML: Thanks, Carrie. It’s been great talking with you…and good luck!

Carrie: Thank you!

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