UCLA ORIENTATION WEEKEND DAY #1 | College Talks

Hello, fellow Nurds!

It's Saturday evening here in SoCal and I returned from New Student Orientation Thursday evening when it started raining. 85-degree Fahrenheit weather and rain. Perfect. : |

This starts off my first College Talks post. I can't believe that it's already September! I officially move in in 19 days!! 

Disclaimer: 

• Since this reflects my experience at UCLA, my experiences may not replicate those at your school (if you don't attend UCLA), though I hope that they are similar to yours, whether you go to UCLA or not. 
• I will bold any advice I have. I hope to not give away any surprises, but then again, there are a lot of things you'll experience in this short amount of time. I took some pictures and some of them are from UCLA's twitter account (you could follow me in the process) to compensate for the amount of tedious reading below. Feel free to skim! 
• Since there is a lot of information that goes through these three days and since I will basically summarize my experiences as well as what to expect and advice, I will separate this post into three posts--one for each orientation day. I will post Day 2 tomorrow and Day 3 by Monday, September 4.

Okay, let's start!

DAY #1

My orientation weekend was from August 29th-31st and I left my house at 6 A.M.-ish, considering I live about an hour's drive away. My dad dropped off my mother at work and next thing you know, I'm asleep only to wake up to find my father and sister (who is in the passenger seat) struggling to find the area to drop me off. 

After asking around a bit, we found the area: Sunset Village. I got out of the car, looked around a bit and immediately thought Damn, with a deep exhale, this is going to be a fucking hot day. And I was right. 

So I made my way toward a line, wherein I was supposed to sign a contract regarding my dorm room for my stay there. It's a small contract and yes, I read the contract because, well, it was a small contract. Sign that shit and make your way to your dorm, lugging around your bags. For the three days that you're there, expect to be in elevators that are 100% packed, so I suggest taking the stairs, which is a struggle, but is less frustrating than waiting to get in a free elevator while sweaty from walking around in the 95-degree weather all day. 

Rieber Terrace

I was one of the first people to arrive on time, so was able to be the first to arrive at my dorm, in Rieber Terrace. All incoming students will spend the duration of the orientation in Rieber Terrace. If you're able to do early arrive, there is an extra fee. If you find that it's necessary (i.e. if you're an out-of-state or international student, early arrival isn't a necessity, but it is recommended so that you arrive on time), don't hesitate and just pay the fee so that you don't have to worry about arriving late. Just be on the safe side. Anyone that arrives past 10 A.M. PST will not be allowed to stay.  I was on the sixth floor, found my dorm, and much to my luck, my key didn't work. Surprise, surprise. 

Luckily, someone else was in the same position, so we went down to the front desk where they re-coded our keys (as the keys are reused each year, activated when a room is used and de-activated when it's not used--not just anyone could use a key). It eventually worked (and then didn't again, but that's beside the point). Since I was still the first there, I looked outside the window, which did not have much of a view, but a nice sunshine. I dropped my stuff and looked in the closets, drawers, and the shared bathroom. Tip: bring hand soap, or in the very least, hand sanitizer to carry around with you while on campus. I would have to exit the building and enter another one just to find an available restroom to wash my hands in. I felt pretty filthy (but then again, so does everyone else, at the end of the day). 

I settled myself in and did some of my midterms (remember that I'm taking online summer classes?) before one of my roommates arrived. Since I wasn't given a schedule, I asked her if she knew what we were supposed to do and where we were supposed to go. She knew alright. We went down the elevator and departed with some girls we chatted with in the elevator. Down some stairs and lo and behold, we were in a quad that I would later forget about, leading me to get lost hours later. But I'm not there yet. By the way, I'm stupid (if you didn't already know that) and you'll see that throughout these few posts regarding my experience at orientation. 

The descent view from my window.

We arrived at a table where we were to receive our Bruin cards (basically, our ID's). If you didn't take your picture ahead of time, don't worry; the people at the desk will tell you that you will have several opportunities to do so throughout orientation. So they'll give you a sheet with the name of your New Student Advisor (NSA), which is basically an upperclassman who is usually in your major. He or she will basically be your leader throughout orientation, leading activities, offering advice, and giving you a tour, etc. If you do not attend UCLA, you may have a similar person. 

I found my leader (who was holding a bedazzled sign) and group, but not before getting a doughnut or two provided by student volunteers. You will have to write down your AP scores and any other college credits you may have fulfilled prior to attending orientation. It may be helpful to bring your AP, SAT, ACT, IB, TOEFL, and any other test scores you may have as well as your high school and possible community college credits. It will save you time; I can assure you. You will also take a survey. It's pretty lengthy but self-explanatory. You'll see why they ask you to take this survey.

When all is well and you kind of get to know the group you'll be sticking with for the next two-and-a-half days, you go on a little tour down Bruin Walk and into a building (I forget which one, as you'll be seeing many buildings throughout the orientation). It's a grand ball room I think (Indeed, I just checked and yes, it's the Ackerman Grand Ballroom). You'll actually go to this room several times throughout orientation. In this room, you'll receive a special Bruin Welcome! Watch some videos, ultimately be proud of the fact that you got accepted into this wonderful institution, and find out the reason behind the survey. It's a national survey, that compares the results of the total number of incoming students with all incoming students at all colleges participating in the survey throughout the nation. You will see last year's survey. Since you just turned yours in, you obviously can't see your year's results, but they should be roughly the same as last year's. 

UCLA Panoramic

After, you'll eat lunch with your group, which is a great chance to get to know them! Personally, I didn't (ambivert alert), but I encourage you to. 

You will soon return to the Ackerman Grand Ballroom for two more assemblies, with a ten-minute break in-between. They tell you not to use your phone, so keep yourself occupied somehow. Personally, I read for one of my classes, but then again, I also took seven naps so . . .  If you attend another school, you will have similar assemblies. They have to do with school policies on safety, academic character traits (at UCLA, it's R.A.I.S.E., which means Respect, Accountability, Integrity, Service, and Excellence). The one thing to take away from the assemblies is that they're strict on their disciplinary actions towards students who do not follow R.A.I.S.E. Keep that in mind. You might actually win a prize in the process. 

Afterwards, you'll be able to go to a room with your NSA and group and check out your degree requirements. Make sure to ask plenty of questions. Others may have the same questions and your NSA is usually an upperclassman in your major, so they've most likely taken courses that you're supposed to take! Ask for clarification and make sure to listen as well. These are requirements--major and school-wide requirements. If the word "requirements" doesn't scream LISTEN to you, I don't know what will. 

"I got out of the car, looked around a bit and immediately thought Damn, with a deep exhale, this is going to be a fucking hot day. And I was right." 

For UCLA specifically, there is an optional activity with your group wherein you get to travel Westwood and shop (YaY), albeit, you have the opportunity to buy a toy so that by Day 3 the NSA's will collect all of the toys and donate them to the UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital. It's charitable and you get to travel Westwood, shop (especially for soap, food, or essentials that you forgot at home), and volunteer. DO IT!! Because I am an ambivert and had already had enough social activity in the past several hours, I try to find my dorm, and this is where I travel around campus, which was lovely, but I was still lost. I really wish I could have taken photos, but my phone was dying. Sorry :/ If you haven't realized how dumb I am by now, you definitely know. Tip: don't go walking alone. You're new to campus and so is everyone else, so be new and discover the campus together. If you do get lost, ask for directions. Don't be embarrassed if you'll think that others will judge you for being a 1st-year or freshman. It doesn't take that long to ask for directions and people are usually kind, so do it. It'll save time and perspiration. Trust me, it took me an hour to find my dorm. AN HOUR!!! Yeah, you don't need to remind me how moronic I am. 

Since I have horrendous spatial skills, I kept going in the same area but failed to realize that I just had to go up a long flight of stairs and make a right. *face palm* Not my brightest moment. It was sunny and I was bright with a superfluous amount of sweat the drenched even my underpants that I actually became uncomfortable to walk with out my underwear literally rubbing me the wrong way (which you didn't need to know, but that's what you get XD).

Update!

Hello Nurds,

Here's a little reminder :)

Firstly, I want to say that I will be posting on Saturdays now. Fridays are technically still during the week for me (i.e. I still have tests and assignments and things to study in advance for), yet still a day when I have some relaxation. Saturdays, I have more freedom in my assignments and studying.

I just want to mention that I haven't blogged in a few weeks (even though I've been fairly consistent this summer in terms of posting) because my summer classes at UCLA have started and I have midterms right now. I needed a study break, so I decided to post this to take my mind off things and explain what's happening and where I've been.

My summer classes are online courses, so I have yet to actually move to UCLA. You're probably thinking, If you haven't moved in yet, why haven't you been blogging if you're still in the comfort of your own home? Well, UCLA is a new world and although I have been to college before, UCLA is its own stratosphere; that's why it's also known as a baby or new ivy. As you know, ivy leagues are hard to get into and even harder to survive and graduate (alive, nah, just kidding). That said, I needed to give my classes my undivided attention, especially because we're on the quarter system that is ten weeks per quarter, when in fact, summer courses are six weeks, so I'm fitting in ten weeks of material into six weeks. Mind you, I'm taking four classes, because well, I like suffering. In all seriousness, these are courses that generally interest me and that give me credit toward my major and toward my degree in general. You can check out what classes I'm taking by reading SUMMER PLANS.

I will blog this summer. The lucky thing about my classes is that I get to watch about 65 movies in six weeks and read a lot of great plays and even some screen plays so you can check out some movie and book reviews in the near future. I will post this week though and hopefully every week thereon. I should say in advance when I will not be posting or if I will be on hiatus. After all, since I'm making blogging more permanent, I am bound to make some mistakes and learn from them.

This week in particular, I'll blog about diversity and the importance of the movie Moonlight and why I feel that we need it now. I will also prepare a post about the movie Her and include a Song of the Month for that.

Also, check out for College Talk videos that I will be starting next Saturday regarding my experience at UCLA orientation. This will be a series on my blog that I hope you will find useful and they won't only be about UCLA. I'll do study tips and things to buy as well as utilizing your campus resources talks, etc.

Oh, and I hope you love the red panda I coded and learned a thing or two about the endangered species. What other species would you want me to code? Let me know in the comments below!

14 Things You May Not Know About Red Pandas + New Logo

What's up Nurds,

It's Joss here. And I have GOOD NEWS!!! Look what I coded! Isn't she cute?! Thanks to Khan Academy, I was able to code this red panda and trust me, I know what you're thinking. It looks like a fox. But if you look below, red pandas actually do look like foxes and raccoons.

Without Khan Academy and their lessons on coding, I would not be improving as I am. I had been working on this for awhile and even more so within the past week. It was certainly not easy. It wasn't like they had an animal outline or figure that I could choose from and then choose outlines to add on top of it; it was ALL from scratch. So if you want to learn how to code--animals, happy faces, even video games--I totally recommend it, just go to the Khan Academy website and you can sign in with a Google or Facebook account and you can even earn energy points for watching educational videos and doing practice questions/quizzes, whether that be for computer programming (coding) or should you choose to explore another topic of study.

Virginia Zoo

That aside, this cute little red panda will be the logo for this blog as opposed to this blasé looking bear on the left that I attempted to code awhile back when I was first learning to code. 

Additionally, I'm taking this as an opportunity to continue coding animals, like the red panda, that are endangered to raise awareness. This isn't sponsored in any way. I love animals and feel that I can lend a hand, even by just writing about the issues that go on in this world. Hopefully, by coding all of these animals, I can create an atmosphere and environment on this blog, where we can discuss issues, not only about animals, but issues in this world in general and hopefully this jungle of animals on this blog will be a symbol of that. 

Please sign this petition on change.org to save red pandas. Here is some further information provided on the page to provide some context: 

 "We all know the fluffy, lovable Red Pandas, don't we? They face a huge problem: extinction. Listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN, there are less than 10,000 left in the world. This is because of deforestation, environment change, food needs, and poaching. We need to help these animals survive in any way we can. Their environment is mowed down because we want to live there, they are slaughtered because we want to wear them. We are not just taking their homes. We are taking their lives. If you care about the environment, about these sweet creatures, then sign this petition so we can start to make a change. If you want to impact these animals lives even more, donate to the Red Panda Network, where you can be sure your money is going to a great cause."

On top of that, I want to provide some facts that you just may not know about red pandas, which shouldn't be a surprise considering how little we hear about red pandas, if we even do hear about them.

Sounds Like Me: My Life (so far) In Song by Sara Bareilles + Song of the Week | Review Revolution

Hello, my lovely Nurds!!


If it isn't already apparent from the title, I'm reviewing Sounds Like Me: My Life (so far) in Song. I had anticipated on reading this since I heard that it came out back in 2015.

A little back story, last summer (while on hiatus from this blog), when I was starting college apps, my second wave of depression was arising and lurking around a corner. I knew where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do, but couldn't do anything. The feeling of being held back by some strong forces (e.g. family, school, etc.) is not a good feeling, and while I have yet to overcome this depression, I'm glad I had Sara Bareilles along with me. In a musical sense, of course. And there's no better way I would have preferred that. 

Let me explain. 

I was starting college apps and was pretty uncertain. I knew Sara Bareilles' more mainstream songs, namely "Love Song", "King of Anything", and "Brave", but that's basically it. As the school year started, I really acquainted myself with Waitress the Musical, which, if you don't know, is the musical adaptation of Adrienne Shelly's movie of the same title.

I had definitely been around when the movie came out around 2007 and had seen parts of it, but my eldest sister claimed that it was "too inappropriate" for 9-year-old me, so I wasn't exactly familiar with the plot until I really researched it, coming to find that Bareilles' most recent album What's Inside: Songs from Waitress wasn't just her singing songs from the musical, but also her singing the songs because, well, she wrote them. She discusses how this came about near the end of the book. 

With that said, I acquainted myself with Jenna, the protagonist of both the musical and movie, and found myself gravitating toward her and the powerhouse song "She Used To Be Mine" (of course written and performed by Bareilles, and provided below to the right) because Jenna and I had been in the same situation more or less. Sure I had not been pregnant or in an affair and abusive relationship, but I was lost, which I would've found myself hard to admit at the time.

After discovering all of this, I'd clicked songs that were recommended on Youtube and immersed myself in as many songs I could hear from Bareilles. Of course, there are a few I'm not a fan of, but for the most part, I love the majority. 

So, eventually, I got the book (because I felt that I deserved to buy something for myself after saving my money frugally for the past four years) and I wasn't too disappointed. Yeah, scratch that. I got a fucking paper cut opening up the fucking package, so besides that, everything was pretty damn good.

I'm going to start this article with the cons and finish off with the pros, so that you all end on a light note, but as you can see below, I'm giving this book a 4.5/5 hearts. Let me explain why.

Con #1: The book was incredibly short (under 200 pages)

Considering that she is a beloved singer with a lovely history and music like no other, I would have wanted more. I do appreciate, however, that she did open herself as she did; it must not have been an easy thing, as she admits within the first few pages. Her writing does justify a lot of her struggles and experiences, but I would have hoped for a bit more for someone who's written several albums and who is a five-time Grammy nominee.

Con #2: The grammatical and syntactical errors

When I'm reading, I want to know that I don't need to annotate my book when it's not obligatory. Apparently, the lack of quotation marks around song names completely passed by the editor throughout the entire novel. As a novelist myself, I intuitively feel like adjusting novels when I think my creative processes and ideas get the best of me and when I see fit. However, this book was hardly a novel and there's not much I can change when it comes to someone else's life (a.k.a. nonfiction), so I thought I was going to read pen-free. I guess I was wrong. Sure, I didn't have to make corrections, but it's really irritating when I'm reading and find grammatical and syntactical errors, so that was kind of blah.

Pro #1: She has an incredibly unique story to tell. But also, I like that it wasn't a narrative. 

Reading comments on Goodreads, I have found that a lot of people prefer books with a chronological order of events, but I liked that each chapter wasn´t in that order. However, that's not to say that it wasn't organized. Okay, upon first sight, you might wonder What does "My Life (so far) in Song" even mean? I had an idea myself before I read it, but was astounded to find that it was structured such that the chapters were names of several of the songs that have influenced her the most, namely: 

Each chapter is crafted with a spectacularly witty and life-altering experience that has shaped her in some way, whether that be coping with her parents' divorce, experiencing rejection after rejection from shitty people from her record company, or even a breakup (cue any Taylor Swift song here). She does not shy away from discussing her struggle with her weight, image, and self-esteem, which, she admits, still linger today, even as she is a grown woman. Yet, her

She includes the struggle of starting a new path, being lost, and being the odd one out in a seemingly singular and narrow-minded industry.

The entire layout of the chapter "Beautiful Girl" is written as letters to herself--the younger, formative, and current versions of herself. They are letters reminding herself that she is imperfect and has insecurities, assuring herself (and the reader) that everything will be okay as she accounts the experiences she had growing up at different stages of her life, kind of in the style of telling her childhood and formative and current self all of her adult wisdom.

Pro #2: She includes guest writers and pictures.

I'm not sure if this is because the struggle of writing a book eventually became real and she needed to fill pages because she ran out of content and words and laziness set in store or if she genuinely felt that her book needed guest writers to make her book seem more authentic, but I'm glad that she chose to include photos from throughout her life and the guest writers.

Guest writers include Jessica Vicker, a personal fan and friend of Bareilles; musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer Jack Antonoff; and bandmate and musical director Chris Morrisey.

These offered a personal touch to the book that couldn't be tangible otherwise. For example, Bareilles accounts her personal connection with her fans on several occasions.

For instance, Vicker mentions that no one experiences music the same way. Music is personal to the musician and the listen, who have different backgrounds, but nevertheless, the same message is felt.

Bareilles responded to this in her book about performing her song "Satellite Call" in concert:
"It took my breath away when I opened my eyes to see the entire audience had held up the flashlights on their phones, creating a blanket of thousands of tiny, twinkling, swirling lights, surrounding us. . . . it felt like a symbolic exchange. Of being heard and seen. Each little light represented somebody out there who was listening, and collectively, they created a sea of stars. A sea of souls, rather, and I was honored to be among them."

5 Reasons Why I Continue Blogging

Hello fellow Nurds,

So I was thinking about it only en route to my summer classes: Why do I still blog if seemingly no one is listening? And a lot of ideas, which could only be condensed into five solid ideas, swarmed into my head, before I nearly drifted to sleep a few minutes away from campus (obviously).

1) Blogging opens my horizons

Through this blog, I am able to explore my music, art form, poetry, and other areas of creativity in ways I wouldn't otherwise experience. This blog gives me an excuse to explore other outlets that inspire me 

avoid reality in a way. By posting weekly (and with that said, a deadline), I'm keeping this blog grounded and open-minded. With my outlets, namely Youtube (and the various channels it has to offer), of course of world of literature, inspiring women out there (especially women of color)m, and now Tumblr (if you haven't heard from last week's post, I created a Tumblr, so check out that post here and my Tumblr page here).

2) Therapy

Blogging just exposes a part of me that I cannot share to even the closest people in my life. That's not to say that I'm going to be ranting about peeps in my personal life. I want to discuss real content--events and phenomena that are actually happening in the world as well as any personal experiences that I could possibly offer from being multiethnic, transgender, and a multipotentialite.

I hope that the next nurd who stops by can get a sense of what this blog is all about (or rather what it will be about), you know, before they decide to never come back. Haha the point is, I hope this blog has some inch of influence, whether it be something learned, something thought upon, or something, reflected in some way. With that said, if someone stumbles on this site and I happen to help said someone who's struggling with the same issues or overcoming something I previously went through, then I'm glad this said helped them in whatever way it could. 

3) The opportunity for improvement

Even while on hiatus, I've been improving my blog mentally. The time away gave me an opportunity to rediscover and redirect the focus of my blog. I have been introduced and even reintroduced to outlets that support my focus on social activism and what I feel should be discussed in this light. I'm still fine that no one may be listening, but I hope to expand and I think optimism will get me there! There was an opportunity for change and I'm taking it. I look back at old blog posts and so many mistakes I've made, that I now know what direction I want to go in (even though I'm damn well sure I'm going to continue making mistakes). Oh well. It's all a learning process, right?

4) I have bigger and better plans

Yes, peeps. Although this blog may not seem like much more than me ranting or expressing my thoughts via one-ended discussions, I still do have plans to expand this blog to be what I've always envisioned it to be, but lost touch visualizing. As you may know, I was on a huge hiatus and even though I wasn't blogging, I was still thinking and planning. I found a direction. Not much will be said about these plans, but keep your eyes open. Currently, I'm attempting to code animals to adorn this blog, and more specifically, endangered species to raise awareness to these species that isn't publicized. So instead of me being a plain panda bear, I'll be a red panda bear!! YaY :D

On a side note, I'm doing a UCLA - College Talk series here come late August, so look out for that!

5) I WANT TO!  

Does this really need an explanation? This is my decision and my blog and what I say goes. So I'm glad I have the authority to make decisions for this blog that I can't make in my life. As someone who's been so limited, growing up as a lower-middle class citizen, it's just assuring to know that I am in control to some degree. 

What ideas do you peeps have for me? Anything you want to see on this blog? Just let me know in the comments below! :)

SO I CREATED A TUMBLR!!

Hey Nurds!!

I had a blog post created for the day, but it wasn't quite finished and there would need to be some time to finish it, so I thought I might want to create a relatively short post this week, which should be a relief to all of you because I can write and type--A LOT!! With that said, I have finals and I'll just publish that post next week, after my finals end.

In other news, I'll be coding a unicorn by which I hail unilords. Yes, I did say unilords and I worship them pretty hard. There actually a huge part of the animal dynamic of this blog. In fact, I'm think about making this blog more animal-oriented and create a page with several animals and their whole purpose on the blog.

As you may know, pandas are pretty huge on here, but I'll be switching the whole panda theme to a red panda theme (in which I will code more red pandas, so look out for those pretty soon), because red pandas are endangered and I think it's important to raise awareness to red pandas while I have a voice and degree of influence online, despite my affection for these furry creatures!

Am I not cute anymore?

Getting right into the actual purpose of this post, I STARTED A TUMBLR!! Y'all can check it out here and don't worry, I've linked all of my blog posts from here to there so you can check me out on this platform or Tumblr with little difficulty. The format is not as up to par as I would have hoped, but it was a bit of a hassle getting all of that content on there in the first place, so I'm pretty content and knd of impressed that I actually did it. In any case, you have all of that Funky Nurd glory on yet another platform so enjoy!

With constant love,

Joss Glenn

P.S. If you're not appreciating the whole black-and-white panda to red panda thing, hopefully these pictures will convince you that the change won't be too much of a dilemma.

Aren't I cute?

I'm adorable and trust me, I know it.

LOVE ME!!!

Milk | Review Revolution

Rated R | 2008 ‧ Drama film/Romance ‧ 2h 8m

Starring: Sean Penn, James Franco, Josh Brolin, Emile

Hirsch, and Alison Pill

Hey Nurds,

I wasn't expecting to do a movie review, but I have planned on watchin this movie for awhile and it just so happened to be an extra credit assignment for one of my classes (read more about my summer plans and classes here), so I thought why not? Nonetheless, here is a little impromptu movie review with a scoring scale! I don't know about you, but I've always wanted to do my Review Revolution book/movie review scale, so check out my scoring guidelines here for more on that!

The movie began with the end: the tumultuous outlook of post-assassination. The streets, the riots, and public outrage against Dan White (Josh Brolin) and his assassination of Harvey Milk (Sean Penn), who had been loved, supported, and admired, gaining the trust of the people--straight and gay.

“It’s not just about winning,” Penn says in the movie; he wanted to start a conversation, addressing issues regarding gay rights, including, but not limited to the gay working class, bigotry, and just the gay lifestyle in general. A businessman of sorts, he gained attention with his charm and promise. Although he was a Republican man, he became politically active, despite scorn, death threats, and constant push backs. He gained the support and trust of straight and gay people alike by understanding people’s stories on a personal and individual level and taking to heart the stories of those who nearly took their lives out of fear of being in the closet. With that said, near the end of the movie, he takes an emotional toll when his own lover commits suicide.

I like the documentation format of Sean Penn’s character recording his journey and encounters should he be assassinated, in such a format that, as the audience, we experience dramatic irony, because we know that he was assassinated and even Milk could predict it himself. The historical exigence of Cleve Jones going to Spain and his account of experiencing a memorial riot while in Spain that was at the center of supporting gay rights and gay individuals who were essentially persecuted for being queer, despite the totalitarian reign of communist Franco at the time, was a particular effort at providing context as supplement to the 70’s style of clothes, home, vernacular, and architecture. Additionally, there were actual primary sources of interviews and footage from the actual time era at which the events of the movie had depicted, including footage of Anita Bryant, Dan White, riot after riot, and yes, Harvey Milk himself. Anita Bryant and many others opposed him and his allies on a religious perspective, which is still common of an argument to this day.

Milk and White agreed to work together on an initiative White was supporting; however, when Milk disagreed with the effects of the initiative, White voted against a gay ordinance regarding limitations on anti-gay discrimination in the workplace out of retaliation. The movie depicts Dan White perhaps as homosexual himself and resented and murdered Milk because of that.

Harvey was not only a beloved man, leader, and activist, but also a groundbreaking man who pushed barriers and was okay with being controversial so long as he was starting a conversation about what affects everyone--heterosexual or not. It is really important to understand that the efforts of Milk and his allies as well as the push-backs from his opposers are a foundation to modern efforts at achieving equality. Even today are we still struggling for the same goals and initiatives and experiencing the same disapproval and religious intolerance that sparked more prominently when Milk arose as a leader. As a young activist myself, I feel that Milk’s efforts were inspiring and integral to what I feel still needs to be achieved and discussed.

There was a fine discrepancy between feeling emotionally aligned with Penn and understanding that Milk was a real person and that the events that the movie depicted actually happened more or less, but the movie kind of crossed that line, I would say. Penn’s portrayal of Milk and the supporting cast were impeccable; the performances were authentic and the ensemble convincingly resembled the people they were meant to portray (so props to the casting director). And of course, Dustin Lance Black, the screenwriter for his impeccable script that conveyed the exigence and emotional resonance of the film incredibly well. Plus, he’s a UCLA alum, so I’m kinda biased here.

Collaboration, passion, and sentiment. That was all there; however, and I do like how the cinematographer incorporated this, it seemed that Milk started the campaign and running for office for the mere purpose of filling a void in his life. Either that was true or this was one hell of a pre-mid-life-crisis. Despite this, he was loved, raining in a candlelit vigil of supporters and even those who regret disagreeing with him. His purpose and dedication to gay rights live on! That's #PRIDE right there.