As I sat on the tarmac waiting for my plane to take off on May 7, I was wary of the weeks ahead of me. Two weeks prior, I was eager to leave for Cannes, France to be an intern with The American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival, but the devastation that had struck in the week between had left me torn – with only a desire to stay and help my college town. Leaving my town that had – in many areas – been reduced to rubble and traveling to intern in a town full of red carpets and extravagance seemed trivial, and, in my mind, wrong.

I didn’t know what to think or how to feel about the situation; I considered finding a way out of the trip days before I left. With all options exhausted and knowing that in the end I’d regret not taking advantage of this opportunity, I embarked on my eight-hour flight across the Atlantic, unaware of what I was about to experience.

Now, almost two weeks removed from my travels in France, processing my time spent as an intern and the drastic change of environments is a daily task. I still don’t know fully what to think about the experience; the two weeks went by faster than I imagined. Looking back, though, I can’t even begin to put into words how thankful I am that I wasn’t able to talk myself out of the trip.

Cannes, a naturally gorgeous city in the south of France, literally transforms overnight in preparation to hosting the Cannes Film Festival. Red carpets are rolled out, temporary pavilions are set up along the beach, and celebrities, models and film industry professionals pour into the city. With my arrival to Cannes three days prior to the start of the festival, I was able to witness the dramatic transformation and all the necessary work that goes into making the film industry and its celebrities appear so glamorous. Only through creativity and an enormous amount of staging is glamour actually achieved.

My internship with the American Pavilion was anything but glamorous; however, the people that I worked with and the work I did singlehandedly made the experience rewarding. As an intern with the American Pavilion – a business and entertainment venue complete with a restaurant and Internet cafe for professionals in the industry – I was on the “Pip Squad.” (Our boss’s name was Pip, hence our intern group’s title). We were in charge of getting tickets for both market and red carpet film screenings. Every morning I retrieved the tickets for films in official competition, which Pip would exchange throughout the day. We had a complex system to ensure that every intern at least had the opportunity to walk the red carpet for a film premiere – an experience that couldn’t be passed up.

Another critical part of my experience in Cannes was actually seeing the films. While I didn’t get to see as many I would have liked, the setting of a film festival forced me to view them with a more critical eye and value them as a form of art, rather than merely entertainment. After seeing movies like “We Need to Talk about Kevin,” “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” “Tree of Life,” and a documentary on the New York Times, “Page One,” I can easily say that we have a strong line of films being released in the next few months.

My time in Cannes was short-lived, but every moment was packed full of things that I will remember for the rest of my life. The people that I met, the talented friends I made (all of whose work we will undoubtedly be seeing in the future), and the film education I received during those two weeks I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Life is back to normal now – no more red carpets or star-studded parties – but I find myself continually reflecting on the two drastically different events that occurred this past month, attempting to come to terms with them. I’m still trying to figure out what I learned from each and hope in months to come my ideas and thoughts will be more concrete. But if anything, I realize that I entered Cannes with a different perspective than most; a more realistic perspective, which allowed me to view the festival as it is, without getting caught up in the glamour and extravagance.