Juniors Alyssa Noel and Sam Noel, stand outside their house on Wednesday, Oct. 19. “We switched schools for the first time pretty much halfway through the year, which was a really weird experience for us, but it got better the more we’ve moved,” Alyssa Noel said. “I haven’t moved schools in awhile though, which has been a really nice change of pace.”
Finding support in each other, juniors Alyssa and Sam Noel adapt to moving and switching schools often
After attending nine different schools, Alyssa and Sam reflect on their past
For most students, attending three separate schools before further education is the social norm. However, juniors Alyssa Noel and Sam Noel have attended nine schools from Omaha, Nebraska to Shawnee, Kansas due to their father being frequently relocated as a district manager for Sprint.
Between living in Omaha, Nebraska; Columbia, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; St. Peters, Missouri and Shawnee, Kansas, the sisters have struggled with distance and switching between schools their entire lives.
“Every time we’ve moved, I’ve been really quiet around people at the beginning because I was nervous, which is expected,” Alyssa said. “Now that I’ve been able to be in schools for longer periods of time though I’ve been able to be more social.”
Despite the hardships, Alyssa has managed to remain positive with the help of family and friends.
“It was really hard switching so much, obviously, but it wasn’t the worst thing. You have to make a lot of new friends because of it, but that means you get to experience new people all the time which is really cool,” Alyssa said. “Having my sister with me through all of it was helpful though; it was better than always being alone at the beginning of each move.”
Sam also believes moving so many times isn’t something to be negative about.
“When we moved around at first, when I was younger, I didn’t care quite as much,” Sam said. “I was five the first time we moved, so I didn’t really notice. Last time we moved it was hard, but I didn’t care as much since I’d gotten used to it.”
In Alyssa’s eyes, this caused challenges within their family.
“Every time we moved I’ve been angry at my dad,” Alyssa said. “Since he gets paid more every time he moves, he was more willing to move than we were. My mom really wants us to move back to Nebraska, because that’s where all of our family lives and that’s why I also want to go back eventually.”
Although the two sisters were able to rely on each other between changes, they do their best to avoid the more sensitive parts of the topic.
“We don’t talk about it that much because it can cause a lot of problems,” Sam said. “[Since] moving around wasn’t really our choice, we try to argue about it.”
Alyssa believes that although the changes in location aren’t horrible, her relationship with her father has been negatively affected by it.
“My dad and I fought the most back in Nebraska obviously, but it’s gotten better as we’ve gotten older and been able to stay in places longer,” Alyssa said. “We would argue about how I always wanted to move back [to Nebraska]; I was just really tired of leaving places and he would always make promises not to move again that he wouldn’t keep.”
The social lives of the sisters have been variously afflicted due to changing schools so often — sometimes staying for an entire year at a school and sometimes staying for less than a quarter.
“I might be less shy if we hadn’t moved around so much,” Sam said. “I actually [ended up making] a deal with my dad saying we wouldn’t have to move again since this is the longest we’ve ever stayed in one place and I’ve been able to open up to people [here].”
However, the experience has given Alyssa many memories to look back on.
“It was actually really [funny] the last time we moved. My dad paid a company to pack up all of our stuff in our house and load it into the trucks and I was hanging out with all of my friends, since it was the last day we could all hang out,” Alyssa said. “When I got back to the house everything was already packed up and I was really confused [at first] because I didn’t realize it was going to be that quick.”
While moving meant new adventures and memories for Alyssa, it also meant saying goodbye to friends.
“The middle school I went to in St. Louis before we moved here was particularly hard to leave because we were there for so long,” Alyssa said. “I knew a lot of people there so it was hard to say goodbye and leave them behind.”
Through it all, both sisters have managed to keep a positive outlook on their situation, especially thanks to modern technology.
“I was obviously pretty sad whenever we moved, but also since I was younger it was kind of exciting because it meant going to a new place I didn’t know about yet,” Alyssa said. “Luckily though, I still talk to all of my old friends. Obviously we don’t see them, because they’re so far away, but it’s nice to be able to still be in contact with them.”