Hoped off the plane at L.A.X. with my dream
and cardigan. Welcome to the land of fame, excess, and I thought to myself
"Am I gonna fit in?". Jumped in a cab, here I am for the first time.
Look to my right and I see the Hollywood sign. This is all so crazy. Everything
seems like a Miley Cyrus song. Well, now at the end of this program, I can
confidently say that I, indeed, fit in. It's always strange going to a new city
for an extended period of time, living with complete strangers, and making a
new place your home, but for all the times I felt uncomfortable or like a
stranger in a strange land, it was well worth it in the end. 
For example, the first time I met Patrick
Maddox was when we took the picture to the left. It's not every day that you meet
someone for the first time by sitting on his or her shoulders and taking crazy
pictures of the Hollywood sign. And now about 10 weeks later, Patrick and I
have become really good friends, along with the rest of my fellow students on
this trip. It is just one of the many ways this trip can prove how much can
change in ten weeks (besides skin tone).
As the first week of getting acquainted to
the city rolled out with awesome tours of Universal and Warner Brothers, (where
I got sorted into a Hogwarts house picture right), it did not really hit me that I was in
the Los Angeles, Hollywood, the birthplace of all my favorite things, etc. It
was all too surreal, casually living Hollywood, working across the street from
The Dolby Theater (the home of the frickin' Oscars!!!), and simply being in LA.
I did not feel like home yet. The big highway with infinite amounts of traffic,
all the starving artists lurking every corner of the city, and fantastic
weather were not enough to excite the little kid in me that has always dreamed
of Hollywoodland. The first hit of excitement and craziness came when our class
attended an FYC (for your consideration for the Emmy's) event for my favorite
comedy on TV (well, technically it's only online), Community. There
inside the Arclight Sherman Oaks, it hit me that this all actually happening;
that I'm in Los Angeles, and I'm about to have the best summer ever. It also
did not hurt that I met the creator of the show and a few of the actors as
pictured below. 
Alright, so now it is hitting me that I am
in LA, and I'm on the verge of having the greatest summer ever. Come week two
it was time to start the whole reason I'm out here in the first place: my
internship. I'm confident in saying that my internship was extremely different
in everyone else's in the program in that it was not in production, and that I
have already been with this company for a year. I had many expectations as to
what I would be doing shot down completely on the first day, but looking back
I’m glad I was wrong. Through my internship I was able to attend many
screenings, meet many people in the industry (some of whom will be helpful in
getting a job once I graduate), and I worked the red carpet premieres for Vacation and Terminator: Genesys. For Terminator,
it was especially fun due to me being able to bring my fellow students with me
to the after party where we mingled with A-list celebrities and had one of the
best nights of out entire lives (as pictured right).
In 24 hours I’ll be at the airport dreading
my flight home back to Atlanta. In 24 hours I would have said goodbye to what I
am happy to call my new best friends. It is really bittersweet leaving and
going home, but as to quote the first Harry
Potter “I’m not going home, not really.” This summer changed me for the
better, and I really cannot express how great of a time I have had. A lot of
people (including myself) have said that maybe this program is a waste of
money, being that I could have easily found my own place out here, and simply
interned all summer, but now at the conclusion I see how this program is such a
unique experience and I would not trade it for anything in the world. I hope. I
wish. I KNOW I’ll be back in Los Angeles one day, and well, yaaaaaaaaa it’s a party in
the U.S.A.
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