The festival life
Junior Diem Dang gains a professional opportunity be attending the Beyond Wonderland music festival.
When you’re interning during the day and taking classes at night in Los Angeles, it’s easy to get caught up and lose track of time. Over the first few weeks, I toured the city and instantly fell in love with it, but there was still so much I hadn’t seen.
In February, my mom flew in and stayed just down the street from my apartment. She, like me, had never been to California before, and she had a long list of what she wanted to see and do. It was the first time I took a break from my various obligations and became a tourist in Los Angeles. For the five days my mom was here, we didn’t stop exploring the city and all it has to offer.
The first thing we did was take a horseback ride through the Hollywood Hills. As someone who was raised in the Midwest, mountains always take my breath away. The mountains that curve around L.A. are no exception. It was sunny and warm, as usual, and I was looking out over one of the most iconic cities in America. It’s a scene that will be vivid in my memory forever.
My mom also requested that we take a lot tour of one of the bigger production companies. I was happy to placate her request. On her last day, we took a tour of Paramount Studios where they shoot TV shows such as “This Is Us” and “Brooklyn 99” — two shows my mom and I love. We couldn’t believe we were so close to a world that had once seemed fictitious and far away.
That weekend reminded me why I wanted to be part of the Semester in Los Angeles program. It’s a city that offers a plethora of unimaginable opportunities. That weekend showed me that Los Angeles isn’t just a mythical city that people tell stories about. It’s real, and it’s waiting for young filmmakers and others pursuing a career in the entertainment industry to take it by storm.