The Penguin Project

“Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great.” -Mark Twain

The quiet coffee shop wrapped its arms around Susan and I as we found our way to an oversized table with mismatched chairs. A rustic stage with a tenderly-loved black piano softly giggled through the entire room. I beamed over my iced mocha, “So, are you so excited?” Susan smiled, “I am really excited. I feel like I can finally say that I’m a filmmaker.”

I think that Los Angeles has a way of making you forget why you moved here in the first place. It is easy to get overwhelmed and distracted. It is far too easy to get discouraged over your pathetic job that barely pays the bills and your rent that is triple your friend’s mortgage back home. It’s even more depressing when you go home, and everyone expects you to have better stories about your life than you actually do (and that’s when you lie).

But there are moments, rare moments, where you remember what brought you to this ridiculous city. It was to meet incredibly talented people that you could be lucky enough to even just call your friends. It was to explore possibilities that you could not even dream of anywhere else. It was to fill that void that has been there all along. It’s not that Los Angeles is the only place that can provide these things. But we all came here for one reason or another, and we will probably leave for one reason or another. But we can make the most of our time here. And sometimes, we can even remind ourselves that despite all of our bitching and complaining, L.A. is pretty great (minus the 405…oh, that freaking 405…).