Sophomore Reilly McIntosh’s life changed—again—the day last summer when her parents called her and her sister downstairs. The girls sat in their living room in North Dakota as their parents calmly explained that their dad got a new job and that they were moving to Texas.
“They said it just, very calmly, like, ‘This is what’s gonna happen. We don’t have dates yet, but it’s gonna happen,’” she said.
For McIntosh, having a dad now retired from the Navy and having family on all sides of the country has meant frequent moves and never really getting to settle in.
“I just felt like I had finally found my place in North Dakota.” she said. “I had found my group of people that I would literally go to the ends of the earth for.”
McIntosh has lived—almost literally—all over the place. She was born in Tennessee, but then moved to Italy for four years when she was first learning to speak. She grew up being bilingual, but stopped speaking Italian regularly in second grade.
“So I ended up going to Italian preschool, which is where I learned it,” she said. “When I moved back to the United States, kids told me I sounded funny. It was weird, so I ended up dropping it.”
“I’m actually hoping to get back into it, but we do use a lot of it around the house from time to time,” McIntosh said.
After Italy, there was a stay in Rhode Island for two years, then Maine for four years, then the family moved again to North Dakota for a little more than three years.
Her latest move was to Texas in August.
McIntosh said her first day at Boswell was overwhelming, and the school is huge compared to any of the other schools she went to.
“I just felt very lost, physically and mentally.” she said. “I lived in a small town, so everyone knew everyone in the school. I considered it a big school at the time, but then I looked at Bos. I was like, ‘Oh.’”
McIntosh said being involved with the choir and theater groups really helped her find her place in Boswell. Choir director Charlie Winkley said she’s shown great leadership in the soprano section, and on the first day she made a good impression.
“Straight out the gate she was professional and very mature,” Winkley said, “like she knew what she was doing.”
When McIntosh heard they were moving to Texas, she wasn’t overjoyed, because even though it had only been a couple of years she had finally let herself be happy somewhere.
Not only would she miss her friends but also her boyfriend, Ryan, who she’s still dating long-distance. Ryan, who lives in North Dakota, was the hardest to say goodbye to. They barely had any time together because right after he confessed his feelings, she had to tell him she was moving to Texas.
“We’d been dating just over three months when I left,” she said. “He told me he liked me, and I had to tell him I was moving the next day.”
They are still committed, though, and even made a mum “together” for homecoming using both their school colors.
“We were actually going to break up and not do long-distance,” McIntosh said, “but by the end of it, we were just like, ‘No way. We can do this. Yeah, we can.’ So it’s still going strong.”