Reflections.

Time really is flying. I will never understand how sometimes, it feels like time goes by so slowly and other times a year feels like one day. One of the nice things about time is that it gives us the opportunity to learn and grow. In some cases, the growing is noticeable. A baby grows his first teeth, a bird grows feathers, and a bear grows thick fur to keep him warm in the cold winter months. In other cases, the growth is more internal. That's the kind of growing I have done over the last few months. I have learned so much by being here. Some things are difficult for me to put into words, but I will do my best.

I have said this several times throughout my program, but human interaction is so important. It may not be as important to everyone else, but for me, it is one of the most important things in life. There have been so many days while I have been here that I have just sat in my apartment and done nothing. Because I live in a one bedroom, I am home alone a lot. I don't have much opportunity for making friends at work because I am in a different location every day with different people, and once we leave for the day, we never see each other again. The people I see the most frequently are full-time, so they are in the same place every day. More commonly than not, cast members that are not on the college program do not want to be friends with college program kids. We are only "temporary," so there's no reason to waste their time getting to know us when another wave of temporary cast members will be around in a couple months. I think this is so sad. Not even for myself, but for the people that don't take the time to get to know other people from all over the world. I am so fascinated by all of the different cultures that make Disney such a diverse company to work for, that I really enjoy talking to my fellow cast members, even if I never see them again. I may work with someone for an entire day, spend the whole time talking with them, and not even get their name. If I see them again, we look at each other and say, "I think we have worked together before..." That's enough for me. If just one person remembers working with me at some point, I have done my job right. I don't mind that I see different people every day, as long as I see people. The days that I stay in my apartment all day are nice, but they are usually the most sad. Sometimes I need these days. I need to be able to sleep until noon and then lay around all day doing nothing. I need time to recuperate after working several long days in a row. But if I have two days in a row where I do this, by 3 PM on the second day, I'm ready to burst. I feel like if I don't talk to someone soon I might go crazy. That being said, on the days where I get a little bit of interaction, I feel a thousand times better. When I came back to Orlando after being home for a week, I was not doing very well. I just went through the motions each day and did as little as possible to make the time pass. This is very out of character for me, but it is the truth. I really missed my family and friends from back home and I wasn't excited to be back here where I had only a few friends. On my second or third day back, I talked to my roommate, Sarah. Just normal chit-chatting. Nothing too exciting. But the fact that she took time out of her day to talk to me made such a difference in my attitude. I felt so much better after that. We only talked for about ten minutes, but from then on, I was a lot happier. I started getting excited for work and not just going through the motions. I went out of my way to be happy instead of out of my way to be sad. I still missed my family, but I just thought about all the things I had to be excited for instead.

Most of what I have learned is about people. In my line of work, I spend 90% of my time people watching. I do not plan on having children any time soon. However, I have become very fond of children since I have started working here. Kids have such fresh minds. And they are very much a reflection of their parents. In most cases. Not every case. There's that expression, "The apple doesn't fall from from the tree." Well sometimes I sit there thinking, "I'm pretty sure it was a grapefruit that fell off that apple tree." Sometimes I really don't understand how the parents and kids can possibly be related. Then there are the times that I look at the parents and think, "Yes. I know exactly why your kid is acting that way. Thank you for the confirmation." The sweetest, most loving kids are always the ones that are torn away too quickly by their parents saying, "Come on, honey. It's the next family's turn." Of course it would happen that way. The best kids have to leave too soon because their parents are actually considerate of the fact that the people in line behind them waited just as long as them. They understand that it is more fair of them to take their turn and move on instead of lingering. But those are the kids that I enjoy having around. The ones that want to hug and play instead of push and tug.

It is important not to judge people too quickly. Everyone deserves a fair opportunity to earn an opinion. In almost any situation, two people should be able to find some kind of common ground. It may take some digging, but eventually they should find something. Taking the time to dig is important. It gives you a chance to learn something. Even if that lesson is just about accepting people for who they are. Not everyone is going to be just like you. That is what makes everyone unique.

Being physically active can make a huge difference in a person's day and life. Since I work at Disney, I walk a lot. Plus, my wardrobe for work is fairly weighted. So I am in decent shape as it is. Recently, I have started going jogging in the evenings after work. It is so nice to be able to run without being too sore to move the next day. At Animal Kingdom, there are bicycles backstage for the cast members to use because the parking lot is so far away. The best part of my day is riding the bike back to the parking lot at the end of my day. I feel so good about myself when I come back to my apartment to take a shower, knowing that I worked hard.

I do not do well with early mornings. This is not new. I've always known this. The days that I have to be up before the sun are so difficult. I just move so slowly in the morning. It is a real challenge for me. I have to be at work at 4:15 AM on Sunday. Nobody would take this shift or trade anything with me. (Shocking, I know) I have learned, the hard way, that I have to set multiple alarms when I have to work early in the morning or I will not wake up. I will sleep straight through my alarm and wake up hours later thinking, "Whoops! Guess I'm not working today." I will have to wake up at 3:00 in the morning on Sunday. I am not overly sure how well this is going to work. I might have to have some night time medicine at 6:00 PM tonight, so I can sleep before work. 

I am so excited that the next chapter of my college program has begun. I am not sad that the last semester ended. I do miss the people that have gone home. I wish they were still here, but I know it is time for all of us to move on. Everything happens for a reason. I am already starting to make some new friends. Now I just need to get a new memory card for my camera! The last one is full, but I don't want to delete the pictures!

I know there are so many more things I have learned in the last five months, but I can't think of anything else right now. I'm off again tomorrow. If the sun is shining, I might go hang out by the pool for a while since I have yet to do that at all. There is only one more week until Michael gets here. I am so excited, I might explode. Words can not express how much I am looking forward to having him here. I feel so complete when we are together. That might sound childish, but I don't care. I have always been very mature and I work at Disney. I'm allowed to say something remotely childish every now and then. 

I would like to also add that today is my mom's birthday! I'm pretty sure she's 29 or something. This is getting awkward because we are both in our 20's now. Not sure how I feel about that. Regardless, I hope her day is magical. And I hope she knows I love her very much. I could not have asked for a more loving person to be my mother. She has always done everything she could for me and goes above and beyond for everyone she cares about. I can't wait to see her on Wednesday. I'm so excited for her to come visit. She might even get to see me working!

Everyone have a magical weekend!

The start of something new

Hello everyone! Everything is finally starting to slow down. The parks are less crowded, I'm not getting stuck in traffic everywhere I go, and work is getting easier. All of the Fall College Program people have gone home. Only the International CP's and people who extended their program are still here. Yesterday, some of the Spring CP's arrived. It's kind of exciting that new people are getting here, especially since all of my friends left last week.

I had to say goodbye to Sarah on Thursday. That was not fun. She has become one of my closest friends and I knew I would miss her a lot. I'm very lucky that she and I ended up living together. I couldn't have picked a better person to share an apartment with. We both cried a lot when she left, but I know we will see each other again! Plus, we make sure to talk every day, so that is nice. After she left, I stayed up pretty late packing and then spent all of Friday packing also. I learned that I have a lot of stuff. Sarah my roommate and Sara Robbins both left me a ton of food, so there was all of that, I have quite a bit of movies and clothes and shoes, and I also really like Disney Merchandise. While I was packing, I found myself really hoping my new roommate and I would get along.




Saturday morning, I got up early to start moving my things into my new apartment. I briefly met my new roommate, but we were both really busy running up and down the stairs, so we didn't talk much. She had to go to work in the afternoon, so I didn't get to talk to her that day. I finished unpacking everything so I wouldn't have to worry about anything on Sunday, and also so that my things would be out of my new roommate's way. Side note: She's taller than I'm used to. Yesterday, my roommate and I finally talked a little. She seems nice. I met her boyfriend too. They left last night and she said she wouldn't be back until late today. That being said, I have had the apartment to myself all last night and today, which was nice, but boring. I was off today and I really wanted to go do something, but had nothing to do and nobody to go do something with. I thought about going to see Les Miserables alone, but figured watching a depressing movie by myself wasn't the best idea. So I settled for a Pretty Little Liars marathon leading up to the season premiere!

I have a couple more days off before my mom gets here, but for the most part, I will be working which will help the time go by faster! Only 8 more days until Mom gets here and 11 days until Michael gets here! Yay! I am so excited. Time is going by so quickly. I can't wait to have Mom here to visit. I think she even might be able to come see me at work! And then after that, Michael will be here for good! Yay! Everyone cross your fingers for me that I will start to make friends. It would be nice to not spend my days off alone!

A couple random stories before I get back to my Pretty Little Liars marathon: Sunday, I was friends with Mickey in Town Square Theater. Mickey met a blind guest while he was there. This guest was with his whole family. With him, was a seeing-eye dog. The man walked up and held out his hand for a hand shake. Mickey shook his hand and when he did, the man said, "Hi Mickey, this is Peyton. And you may pet him." I thought that was so cool. Mickey would have spent more time with him, but he had a whole family with him, and Peyton was between them, so he divided his attention among everyone. Mickey was very honored to have met that family. The attendant told me later that he heard the man in line say, "You know what? I think I'm going to let Mickey pet my dog. I think he is important enough for that." Yesterday, I got to be friends with Vanellope finally! Vanellope is the little girl from the movie Wreck-It Ralph. She is sassy and hilarious and most people don't know her name, but I don't care! We had so much fun together. One lady walked up to her and said, "Vanellope, I think you should be considered a Disney Princess." Vanellope loved that! I had so much fun yesterday and I hope I can spend more time with Vanellope!

Alright everyone! I don't really have anything else to say, so I'm going to get back to wasting away in front of the TV! Have a wonderful night!

Minnie Mouse rang in the new year with class...

Everyone is leaving me. It is very sad. My best friend, Sara Robbins, left yesterday. Tomorrow, I work all day. Friday, Sarah and Hayden leave. Saturday I move into my new apartment. My new apartment is going to be in the same building, just one floor up, so it's not like I am going through a drastic relocation. I do have to pack up all of my things though because I only have three hours to empty my current apartment and I will be doing this completely alone. I still don't know who I am living with. I am trying not to be too worried about this. The fact is, Michael will be here soon and I can always escape with him if I need to, and since I will have someone here to hang out with all the time, I probably won't be home much anyway. But still, it would be nice to have a roommate I get along with. I was more than lucky this time around. Sarah has been the best possible roommate. Honestly, I couldn't have asked for anyone better. We have gotten along great and are able to talk and hang out any time without forcing anything. I have made a great friend in her and I am so grateful. I am sad to see her go. She is leaving a ton of things here for me because she is flying back home. She even packed up all the food for me so I wouldn't have to worry about it. She also packed up a couple boxes of toiletries for me. Such a sweet girl. Obviously she couldn't take all of this stuff back home, but she didn't have to give it to me, so I thought it was really nice that she packed it all up for me. Sara Robbins and her roommate also gave me quite a bit of food as well. Good news guys, I'm not going to starve next semester! Sarah is even leaving me her coffee maker and all the coffee, just in case I randomly start drinking coffee! I hope I get this lucky again. I didn't realize it at the time, but yesterday was the last time I will get to hang out with her while she is here.

Yesterday, Sarah and I went to Epcot because that is her favorite park. Hayden met us there after a little while and then Sarah went to Magic Kingdom to see some friends and Hayden and I headed over to Hollywood Studios to watch Fantasmic one last time. On the way, we made an impromptu stop at Art of Animation Resort because he had never seen it. We walked around there for a little while and then went to Studios. We were hungry when we got there, so we went to the Sci-fi Dine In Theater. You are supposed to have reservations to eat there, but we decided to give it a shot. They ended up having space available, so we decided to stay. This restaurant is so cool. I had never been inside before, so I didn't know what to expect. Basically, you are at a drive-in theater and clips from old Sci-fi movies play on the screen while you eat your food at your table which is actually a car. It was too dark in there for me to get any good pictures, but you can take my word for it. It's really cool. I would like to add that almost every single cast member I have spoken to in the last two days has either asked me if I am friends with Snow White or friends with a princess. It isn't important, but it's a nice confidence booster. Each time I told them no, they were shocked and told me to keep trying. I won't lie, it made me happy. One lady even told me to stuff things in my shoes so I would be taller. While this wouldn't help me, it was still funny. I have almost accepted the fact that I will never have a face role, but it's still nice when people tell me I should.

Today, while I was driving home, I realized how quickly time has gone by since I arrived here. If I had not extended my program, today would have been the last day of my program and then I would have either played in the parks tomorrow and blown almost all my money on things I don't need, or I would have begun the drive home. There are still so many things I want to do while I am here. I haven't even been to every attraction, or every resort, or the beach! I've lived in Florida for 5 months and I haven't gone to the beach! How sad. Michael and I will definitely be making a trip while we are here. I seriously can't wait for him to be here. I feel like I will get to experience everything over again through him and I am so excited. I have definitely gained a new appreciation recently for the opportunity I have been given. So many people want to work at Disney. I do. So many people wish they could be friends with the characters. I am. And so many people wish they could have their boyfriend or girlfriend here with them. I will. I know this next 4 months is going to be so wonderful. I am very excited for the day he gets here. There are only 17 days left! And only 2 weeks until my mom gets here! I'm excited to see her again!

I haven't told any stories recently about my character friends, so I will share this one. I was hanging out with my friend Minnie Mouse on Sunday night at Pete's Silly Sideshow. This is in Storybook Circus, which is part of Fantasyland. I have posted a picture of Minnie before from this location. She has a tiara and pink feathers on her ears and she is wearing a pink, sparkly dress that is really fluffy. She looks adorable. I love hanging out with Minnie here. So anyway, Sunday was December 30. Magic Kingdom showed the New Years fireworks Sunday and Monday night in order to get some guests to go to the other parks on New Years Eve because it is always packed on that night. My last set began at 11:55 PM. The fireworks began at 11:50. When we got onset, the Captain looked at all of the characters, attendants, and photographers and said, "Hurry! Go outside to watch the fireworks!" So everyone, including Daisy, Goofy, Donald, and Minnie make their way out the doors. Unfortunately for Minnie, she didn't noticed that before you walk out the door, there is a single step up. So she tripped. and face-planted. Right in the doorway. In front of all the attendants, photographers, managers, and even her other friends from earlier that night. Thankfully, there were no guests around. Minnie sure rang in the new year with class... Everyone's initial reaction was to just laugh, but then they realized Minnie might be hurt, so they ran over to make sure she was okay. She was fine, so one of her favorite attendants offered her his arm and they walked outside together to watch the fireworks. The show was amazing. There were perimeter fireworks, which means the fireworks are all around you, instead of just behind the castle. It was incredible. I have never seen so many fireworks in my life. After the show ended, we all went back inside and we were done for the night. Minnie was fine. No bumps or bruises. I, however, am still very sore. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I have been spending a lot of time with Mickey and Donald, but also the fact that I completely wiped out in a way I'm not used to. I definitely need to be more careful next time. Hopefully my back and shoulder will heal soon. I feel like I did back when I was friends with Pooh everyday and that is not good at all. I'm sure all will be fine though! I sent in a request to scheduling for me to be able to spend more time with Minnie. Hopefully they listen!

Well, there's my story for you! I'm going to go finish my laundry and then probably get some pizza with Hayden! Tomorrow I'm hanging out with Mickey all day and then I have to say goodbye to Sarah. Wish me luck!