Sunday, July 19, 2020
By:
On Wednesday evenings, the interns gather in a zoom call for a weekly video chat. Although we sometimes play games during these virtual socials, we often just end up talking. Our conversations range from hilarious to provocative, and I can tell that–had we been in person–our cohort would have gotten really close. We would have grown into a small family as we explored DC and built increasingly convoluted inside jokes. As grateful as I am that APS has worked so hard to make this internship a valuable experience – and I’m truly, very grateful –there are times when the hypothetical “would have been” feels very disappointing.
That said, the virtual nature of this internship – and its social events – has its own, unique opportunity for experiences.
I’m based in Asheville, North Carolina, which means that I have access to relatively moderate weather and lots of green spaces. This past Wednesday, I took a walk to a lovely patch of grass ten minutes away from my apartment, where I sat in the shade of a tree to join the intern zoom call. About twenty minutes into the video chat, there was a flash of black in the background of somebody’s screen.
Is that– I leaned closer– a bear? Somebody has a bear?
Wait–
Oh shoot–
THAT’S MY SCREEN
I whipped back and – sure enough – found an adolescent black bear standing thirty feet away. We made eye contact for a moment, the bear pausing as it regarded me.
“Please don’t die,” said one of the other interns, laughing.
“I’ll do my best!” While I spoke, I stood – slowly – grabbed my camp chair, and walked to the other end of the field. Meanwhile, the bear waddled back into the bushes.
This was my first encounter with a wild bear (which makes zero sense, considering that I’ve grown up hiking in the Appalachians), and I don’t think my writing can accurately convey how hilarious it was. This moment is one of those stories that I’ll tell for the rest of my life.
The point I’m getting at: this internship is not what it would have been if it weren’t for the pandemic; there are several experiences that we’re missing, people we won’t meet, and conversations we won’t have. But that doesn’t take away from the moments that we do have. We’re all making the best of an unprecedented situation, and with that in mind, we create experiences and memories that will continue to live with us. Hopefully none of those other memories will involve bears.
Samantha Creech