Wow. I can’t believe it’s already over. My
Disney College Program is over!! “Inconceivable!!”
I feel like so much happened my last 2 weeks
of my program, I don’t even know where to start. Of course, I went to every
park one last time. Looking back on my program, I didn’t go to the parks all.
the. time. I thought I would be Disney obsessed and cry like a baby when I had
to say goodbye to the parks, but so far I’m doing okay. Of course I miss having
something fun to do whenever I want (for free I might add, with free
transportation. Boy did I have it good), and I made so many fun memories, but I
miss lots of other things about Florida more.
Ok, rewind. I feel like my thoughts are all
jumbled up right now. Let me go in chronological order of the things I wanna
talk about.
First item of business. My hair.
When I first came out to Florida, I had to dye
my hair all one color because it wasn’t “Disney look”. I dyed it all blonde,
and then it got blonder throughout the summer from being outside 24/7. A few
weeks before I went to California to see my family, I dyed my hair blonde with
a box and it turned out great! Then it grew out so I had to dye it again. Woof.
It turned out HORRIBLE. Literally people, it was orange. ORANGE. Oh my lanta,
thank heavens I was required to wear a hat to work. I waited a day and then my
dear friend Maddie said, “Oh honey, it’s so bad. Let me fix it”, and at 3am we
went to Walmart and bought another box. We got it to look not so orange, but it
kinda didn’t have a color for a while. Today I am proud to say that my hair is
no longer in the “yikes” or “oh honey” category, but looks semi-presentable. CP
moments people.
I love all my Typhoon Lagoon cast members
heaps and heaps. I miss them all so much. I got really lucky because I got to
work in a park that had a lot of cast members who did the same job
(lifeguards), and it was small enough that I got to know the whole park really
well, BUT it was also not too small. It was perfect. I loved that I got to know
so many people at work- sometimes people have really small groups that they get
to work with. GAH I just miss it so much just typing this!! But at the same
time I am happy to be home. So many mixed emotions.
One of my favorite days at the parks EVER was
the day Ash and I went to Epcot. I hadn’t really given Epcot much of a chance,
and then we went on 4th of July and I fell in love with the park.
We walked around the World Showcase and explored every inch of it. I don’t know
how to explain it, but that day was a dream. We spent the whole day dreaming
about the lives we want to have, the places we want to travel together, and
absorbing everything about the park. We are traveling Europe togeza, there’s no
question about it.
Our graduation service celebration was so…..
fun? Here’s what happened.
I’m an idiot.
When you hear the word “graduation”, you think
nice dress right? When it’s outside and you’re in Florida, you’re WRONG. I
dragged Ashley into wearing pencil skirts and nice shirts to graduation. HA.
First off, we were the only ones dressed like that- everyone else had the
common sense I lacked and wore sun dresses or shorts (this is my public apology
to you Ashley, you were so right and I was so wrong). We had to wait in the
longest line known to mankind to check in so we could get our graduation ears
and food. People. Never ever wear a pencil skirt and button down shirt when the
humidity is over 80%. You will DIE. Needless to say, we didn’t stay at
graduation very long.
After I sat in my ice box of a room for an
hour and changed into summer appropriate clothing, Maddie and I went to the
Florida Mall to get her ears pierced and try on clothes that we couldn’t
afford. The Florida Mall is lovely. I’m happy that I was able to go before I
left. I had this huge long list of things that I swore I was going to do before
I left, including:
-
Universal Studios
-
Busch Gardens
- Clearwater
Beach
- Visit
Miami
- Florida
Keys
Silly Jessie, (Trix are for kids) you have no
money and therefore cannot do all those things. But honestly, it’s ok. I am not
upset that I didn’t get to complete my list. There was so much to do at all the
parks that it kept me busy.
My last week of work was absolutely crazy. I
worked a lot, played a lot, slept little aaand got myself sick. Oh well. It was
worth it. On my last day of work, I had work from 6:30am-3, which meant I had
to take a bus at 5:30, which meant to be up at 5. What time did I go to bed you
ask? 3am. For the second night in a row. Ugh. I’m tired just thinking about
that day. My last day of work was really great! I had in service training in
the morning, where we practiced rescue scenarios in and out of the water,
practice CPR, and guest situations. We had a great group, and our practice
scenarios were so farfetched it was hilarious (we pretended there was a
birthday party and someone accidentally cut their fingers off with the knife
and we had to respond. First of all, has anyone ever cut off their fingers
while cutting a birthday cake? Also, who is cutting birthday cake at Typhoon
Lagoon?). Then we did some water rescue stuff, and after we rode the slide!
Best way to start work. I have ridden every ride at work during in service, not
as a guest. Lines are overraaaaated.
Typhoon Lagoonee and Splashley
My last actual shift was so chill. Every time
I saw a lifeguard or coordinator walking past I yelled, “Hey!! This is my last
day ever!!!!” because it was a momentous day. After my shift was over and I said
goodbye to everyone, walking to the bus didn’t feel real. I still can’t believe
that this summer has come and gone so fast. I remember one of the first times
we took the bus to get back home, and we had no idea what we were doing. We
hopped on the first bus we saw like the rookies we were, and ended up taking
the wrong bus that would take an hour to get us home, instead of 10 minutes.
After I finished my last shift of work, what
did I do? Bought ice cream and a cookie and made myself sicker of course! I had
to celebrate, I had no choice. Ash and I got ready then we headed over to Epcot
to get a treat at France then headed over to Magic Kingdom. Something you
should know about me- I cry at weird things. I am a MAJOR sympathetic crier,
and I am sad to say that every time I see Kim Kardashian cry on TV, I tear up
and have to look away. I can’t help it! (Side story- one time I was at the gym
on the bike, and I was watching Keeping up with the Kardashians. Kim started
crying, and I started tearing up and got emotional while on the bike. Pathetic.)
Anyways, back to the real story. I didn’t know
how emotional I would be my last night at Magic Kingdom. Every time my family
left Disneyland after the fireworks I was always a mess.
We got on the Monorail, and as soon as I looked
out the window and saw that big beautiful Florida sky, I started crying… While
there were 12 other people crammed in the monorail car with us. Oh well.
Instead of taking a second Monorail over to Magic Kingdom, we decided to take
the more scenic view and rode the ferry boat. Great idea and bad idea. It is
absolutely gorgeous!! But it made me cry more because I realized how much I was
going to miss this beautiful State. I wasn’t even crying that I wouldn’t be
able to go to the parks anymore, I have just loved living in Florida!
Any who, after I got myself together, we
headed over to ride Splashley’s ride one more time before we were going to
watch Wishes at 10. We got on Splash Mountain, all excited, and 3 minutes into
the ride, it stopped. And then we waited. And waited. And waited. And then…we
had to evacuate. So we missed the fireworks, AKA, our closure for our Disney
College Program. I am really hamming this up. So after we evacuated, we decided
to create some unconventional closure. We went to the gift shop and took
ridiculous pictures, and then we went and sat right in front of the castle to
watch the second “Celebrate the Magic” show. We seriously had perfect seats.
Afterward, we decided that I needed to take care of my cold, so we went to Main
Street and got ice cream. DeLICIOUS.
After watching our favorite show,
Philharmagic, we went back to Splash Mountain to actually ride the ride since
it was fixed. We almost had the whole log to ourselves! There was no one on the
ride.
We were so tired that leaving the park was not
that emotional. All I wanted to do was go home and sleep. The next day we were
supposed to be picked up at 1:45 for our flight at 4, so what did I do? I
waited until 12:30 to start packing of course! I don’t think I have ever been
so stressed out! 20 minutes before our friend was supposed to pick us up, he
called us and said he got in an accident. WHAT. How does this happen. Thankfully,
Ash’s friend didn’t have to work so she took us, and we made it to the airport
with plenty of time to spare. Phew!
It felt soooo weird coming home. It felt like Florida
had never happened- which thankfully isn’t true. Although I was sad to leave
all my amazing friends and the wonderful people I met, it is good to be home. I
am so blessed to have a great new job that I love that pushes me to learn new
skills and act in a more professional way. I am excited to continue on with school
and make my way (sometimes what feels tortoise-like) toward graduation.
I love to take every experience and learn
every life lesson I possibly can. You can imagine how great Florida was for
that. I learned so much about myself, what I want in life, and who I want to
become. I learned so much from living in a new place and working and living
with people from all over the world. It was truly a unique experience. Out of
all the many life lessons I learned (that are all documented in my journal!)
the biggest lesson I learned is this: I can accomplish any dream that I have,
no matter how big. Truly. I now KNOW that I can do anything I set my mind to,
and that my big dreams can come true if I never give up and work hard for them.
That might sound a little Disney and cheesy, but I truly believe that.
I am so excited about the future and about
life! I have a loooot more things on my list that I want to do. And I plan on
accomplishing each one. For now, the next 7 month adventure will be surviving
and thriving in school. I’ll be sure to keep y’all updated on any major things
worth sharing. I’ll end with my favorite quote, and that is:
“Adventure
is out there!”
Thank you so much for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment