Pima Community College Journalism: McIntyre Profile
If there is way to entertain you, Andy McIntyre will find that way, although not by your conventional forms of entertainment. McIntyre is the type of person that entertains solely by being in the room, with a personality incomparable to anyone else, there’s a way to his storytelling that makes you wish the story had no end.
At 18 years old, He was born to parents Allison and Trevor McIntyre on March 13th, 1997. His father is a plumber and his mother is a dental technician. McIntyre stated that he had always been closer with his grandmother rather than his parents, who he would spend most weekends with. He and his grandmother had such a close relationship when he was younger that in third grade he wrote a Mothers Day card to his grandma instead.
His parents enrolled him into kindergarten at Redland Elementary School, a public K-6 school servicing the urban outskirts of Oregon City. In the second grade, his family had moved and he began going to King Elementary School, more centrally located in town. The vast majority of his elementary school memories involved his cul-de-sac community. Him, along with other friends his age would play football on the street together on an almost daily basis.
By the time sixth grade rolled around, he had begun to show an increasing interest in football, although he would later learn football wouldn’t be showing much interest in him. He had a desire to play football ever since him and his friends would play on the neighborhood streets, except he wanted to play on a real team. After making it onto a team, he didn’t get much field time. He recalls constantly asking the coach if he could go in, until one day the coach replied, “McIntyre, you’re f*cking annoying.” He then decided it was a good time to maybe take a break from football.
Football had made transitioning into middle school much easier, having been able to know a few familiar faces at school. Although McIntyre had started to have a hard time academically in middle school, admitting to not being the best student, adding, “There was not a bone in my body able to do my homework.”
“I smelled bad, I looked ugly, but that’s what middle school is all about,” says Andy as he begins to talk elaborate on his junior high experience. He had a small circle of friends, although never really had trouble making friends. He met one friend however named Brian, through a birthday party of a mutual friend, and the duo would eventually become very good friends and follow each other through high school. The both of them found that they enjoyed creating stuff together, whether it be music, or videos; any form of art available. While in middle school they both found a joy in making short, slapstick comedy videos, inspired by a YouTube channel called Smosh, which they both really liked. They spent most of their time trying to make bands with their friends and putting videos up on YouTube. Romantically, McIntyre had entered a relationship with a girl who shared another mutual friend. That relationship would continue until high school.
High school, as recalled by Andy, was a time of very vast differences, new surroundings and unnerving situations. Desperate to try new things, he soon joined drama, football and became more involved in music. He noticed though that everyone in school with him weren’t open to conversation and all desperately wanted to fit in; saying that popularity in high school was a “make it or break it” kind of deal.
“You know what, I’m going to dye my hair and be in a punk rock band and play football and everyone is going to love my hair and my punk band. Nobody liked the hair and I never joined a punk band,” said Andy talking about his first thoughts and experiences in high school. And although he didn’t join a punk rock band, him and Brian had finally found a group of friends to make a band with and perform. The duo, alongside with three other friends; Dylan, Miles and Matt, they created the band Subject to Change. They would continue to play and perform together for two years and played at Battle of the Bands two years in a row.
By his junior year, McIntyre had once again began dating his once ex-girlfriend again, quit football to focus on music, and moved once again with his family to a set of apartments near the high school. At the apartments, he met a whole new group of friends he would spend almost the remainder of the year. Stating that “There was not much to do there,” he had started drinking and smoking marijuana. Although he enjoys it, he later said that he started for all the wrong reasons. Later into the year he had started to skip school, and had started to feel very non-prominent, like he wasn’t really apart of anything. He started smoking a lot more frequently until he hit a point where he felt he was too into it, labeling that period of time as the “Andy Burnout Summer.” Unable to graduate in time, Andy left Oregon City High School and enrolled in OCSLA.
The Oregon City Service Learning Academy (OCSLA) is a public charter school in Oregon City. The main focus of OCSLA was to offer a smaller class sized, more personal school environment. Many classes at the school are hybrid, meaning they had an in-class and an online portion for the course. The charter school is very helpful for students who felt overwhelmed at Oregon City High School.
Andy though was not too thrilled about spending his senior year at OCSLA. Although OCLSA was really helpful and great for some students, it had a reputation as the destination for the kids who got kicked out of OCHS and were the troublemakers, nobodies and stoners. His plan was to show up, get his work done and then leave. He was in a slump and didn’t want to associate with anyone but himself, until he got to know one of his teachers, named Sherylyn. Sherylyn was a general education teacher who Andy described “as a mother,” and added that she really pulled him out of his slump. A few days into his new school, he had also met a girl named Megan Dennis, who was the first person to talk to him and they had slowly become friends. Throughout the year he had really shown interest in the school and became the Student President of OCSLA, and crammed 8 credits into the last 9 weeks of his high school career in order to graduate.
He also had hardships again throughout the year. A long-time family friend whom he was very close to had died, He had broken up with his girlfriend of another 1 and a half years again, and even though he managed to graduate in the end, school was still a very tough road to walk for him. Although through these hardships he had learned how to better cope with his problems; Such as knowing the difference between needing people for reliance, and needing people for support.
Andy will be attending Clackamas Community College in the fall to start his goal toward a Ph.D. on Computer Science.
