Lady Labyrinth

Natalie is an Intern

The summer of 2021 ruined the rest of the year for me. I lived in a dorm as a sophomore, meaning I was stuck living at home for the summer. All I wanted was to be out of my family's space, especially since my brother was still living at home. He had a good job, and at the beginning of May purchased a house really close to the family home. Since he did not feel ready to live on his own yet (I'll get into that), he decided to rent out the house.

My brother's girlfriend also lived with us. They two of them were not compatible sharing a bed, so she took the guest room. It was fine for a few months, especially since my brother began experiencing some medical problems. It ended up being okay within a few years, but it took experimenting with medicine and lifestyle changes. However, one of his medical emergencies happened while he was showering. I was woken up by his girlfriend yelling for help. He ended up being okay.

His health scare was pretty traumatic for me. Thankfully his girlfriend was at home with us, which made me feel a little better. However, I began to experience pretty severe anxiety any time I slept.

Independence Day was awful. My brother's girlfriend essentially went into hysteria and tried to kill him in the middle of the night. I was woken up to the sounds of someone falling. I thought my brother was having another episode, but it turns out, he was throwing his girlfriend to the ground in self defense.

The next morning, he came downstairs and showed me the scratches the previous night's attacks left him with. My family kicked her and all of her stuff out by the end of that day. We never heard from her again.

One week later, I had my appendix out.

By the time mid-July came around, I began having hallucinations. Any sound I heard caused a near panic attack, so I began to wear noise-canceling headphones to block out unwanted noise. That worked for a few weeks, and I'd take them off in the middle of the night. Eventually, my brain began to produce the sounds of my brother falling. I was woken up to the sound of my brother falling one night. My headphones were still on, so it should not have been as loud as it was. After no additional sounds followed, I realized I was hallucinating. The next day, I told my mother, and my dad agreed to sleep in the now-empty bedroom so I could sleep downstairs in peace.

Anxiety sucks. I've always been a very anxious person, but I never thought it would get that bad. It took a few years, but my brother is okay. No episodes in a long time. He eventually moved into his house and all is well with him.

With all this, I was looking forward to beginning my internship more than ever. I'd be out of the house for eight to twelve hours a day. How awesome was that?

Contact with Rowan was scarce throughout the summer until it came time for the summer program to begin. There was one last text to confirm start times, and then we were ready to go.

The first week was only for freshman and leadership, and it was for two hours. Still, I loved not being home. I got to know the names of the freshman, and we made really good progress. This would also save the returning students the trouble of having to relearn everything at a really slow pace. Not much happened this week.

Week 2 was the first week where everyone was there. The day went from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM. We started so early since we led an outdoor activity, and we wanted to avoid heat. There was an hour lunch break at 11:00. The afternoon was inside.

This week was when I began to teach by myself. Monday and Tuesday were great. The kids were surprisingly responsive, and boy did they crack me up.

I had two students in the same group. One was a freshman, and the other was a sophomore. Both students were Black, and this was an extracurricular that not many Black students were in.