Well July is almost over (literally, about a hour left folks!) and that means there are a lot of goodbyes on the near horizon. Some of them are good goodbyes, like goodbye to massive amounts of tour groups. But others are a bit sadder because now I am saying goodbye to my friends from the Spring Advantage program, and from the International College Program. So within the next few weeks I will be losing a roommate, as well as about five fellow Cast Members from Hollywood Hills.
Goodbyes are a strange thing to me. Some are only temporary, like when you say goodbye to your friends at the end of a school day or work day, or when you say goodbye to extended relatives. The nice thing about those kinds of goodbyes is that you're fairly certain you'll see them again, whether it's tomorrow in class/work, or maybe next month for another family gathering. So those are only temporary.
But then you have longer goodbyes. I've graduated twice now, and each time I've said goodbye to a lot of friends with the knowledge that, chances are, I wouldn't really see them again. I haven't seen many of my high school friends since we graduated and went our separate ways (though I recently reconnected with one, Megan, quite accidentally down here. SFHS representin' at Disney Internships Panel). At college it was even harder because those relationships were just so much deeper. Those people I lived with for four years and while I still talk to them, we've all spread out in different directions and it's hard to get together in person. That's where social networking has truly changed our world.
For the friends that I am saying goodbye to now, well who knows if we'll see each other again. I've done other internships in the past, and honestly haven't spoken a word to those people, except maybe the occasional "Like" on Facebook. I hope that these friends won't become like those friends. My hope is that a year, two years, or maybe even ten or twenty years from now we'll meet again. Maybe we'll all be working for Disney and our roles will bring us together again. Or maybe it'll be by serendipity, like it was with my friend from high school. It wouldn't be the first time I've made chance meetings down here. Disney World has this strange ability to bring people together, whether they live just ten minutes down the road (I met a family who did) or other sides of the world.
Well, I hope for the best. So to Jonathan, Denise, Sophie, Juliana, Barbara, Allison, Courtney, and all the other good friends I've made. We survived the freak rain storms, stifling heat, massive crowds, and guests who communicate in every language under the sun. Goodbye for now, and I'll see ya real soon!

Why hello there everyone! I figured I'd just check in, give another update since we're half way through a new month. So here's what's up...
It's busy busy busy busy busy. Oh yeah, did I mention it's busy? If you asked me to describe my workplace in two words, I'd say Screams, because it's not Hollywood Hills unless a few guests are screaming their lungs out in Tower of Terror, and Portuguese. Yup. Anyone who's been down to Disney World in July and August knows what I'm talking about. The tour groups are out EN MASS!!! What does that mean for us Cast Members? Well it's very crowded, that's for sure. Kind of a bit more rambunctious than usual, and the Super Greeters and International Tell-A-Casts are our new best friends. But don't let the green shirts fool you. It's not just tour groups from Brazil. Last week we had groups from Uruguay and Paraguay, and this week we had lots of groups from Argentina. I'll just say, my High School Spanish is getting a work out! Whew!
Now that I've really begun to get my work schedule under control and almost down to a science, I've started to expand my focus a bit more and look to take advantage of some of the personal enrichment things that Disney has to offer it's Cast Members. Most people think that's just a bunch of meet and greets and networking events, and sure, some of them are. But wait! There's more!
Just this Monday, I took a Beginner's Puppetry Workshop. Yep, you read that right. Puppetry, as in The Muppets, Finding Nemo The Musical and Sesame Street. In fact, the very first song we learned in the Workshop was the Sesame Street Theme song! The one from 1998-2001 that all us nineties kids are familiar with. If you lived under a rock as a child (which is totally fine, I'm not about judging people's life choices or anything like that), then here it is.

Yup. It was actually really hard! Puppetry isn't just about opening and closing your hand to the words. You have to isolate your thumb, otherwise your puppet looks up every time you open its mouth! And then there are crazy things like dropped syllables and variation and inflection, AND THEN, after ALL THAT, they tell you that you have to make your puppet act. With EMOTIONS!!!! I took this class with a friend of mine, Jonathan from England. We ended up having a mix up with the class times, so we went to the same workshop twice. Let me tell you, it was worth it because there's so much that has to go into puppetry and making a puppet seem real! But it was so much fun. Me and Jonathan did a duet of "Tonight" from West Side Story (not our choice), and then we were in a quartet of "I'm Yours" by Jason Miraz. And to finish things off, the whole class did "Don't Stop Believin" (the Glee Cast version). It was so much fun and our instructors, Chris and Jason, were so...well...animated! I'm on the look out for another workshop. If I can get the basics of the first one down, I might be able to move up to the Intermediate workshop where you start learning about things like eye-blinks and how to use an actual puppet. In the beginners class you get two googly eyes that you wrap around your fingers with a rubber band, but you'd be surprised how your hand takes on a life of its own once it has eyes. If you don't believe me, just ask Jerry, Jonathan's new friend. =D
In addition to the Puppetry workshop, I've also enrolled in a Sign Language course. I'm on week two of ten and boy is my brain stuffed! The class is just so much fun though! It's taught by Michelle, who is Deaf, though the rest of the class is all Hearing. I've tried books before, but nothing beats an actual class. Not only do you learn to sign, but you also learn how to interact with Deaf and Hard of Hearing people. They have so many different ways to get their points across and the class has definitely already given me pointers of how to interact with Deaf and Hard of Hearing guests. It is a bit tricky, though, because everyone in the class is at different levels. A few of us came in only knowing the alphabet (and even then, only SORT OF knowing the alphabet), while others came in having taken courses before and one lady has been signing for over a year! But we still muddle through it, and if we don't know, well like I said, Michelle has ways of getting her point across. The class is really fun and extremely informative. I'm hoping that by the end of the ten weeks, I'll be able to test for my language pin. I really want to become proficient enough. It's a really great skill to have. For next week, my homework is to practice, but also to write about what we think it's like being Deaf. I think that I'm going to take some ear-plugs and go about my day. Go play in the parks, go to the grocery store, just try and get an idea.
So that's what's up with me! I'm starting to get more shifts in the shops now. It was really fun picking up hours at Storybook Circus, so I'm back there tomorrow evening. Also, as we come to the end of July, my International College Program friends are winding down their programs. It's sad and I'm going to miss them, but I know that a few have plans of returning for PIs or various other reasons. No matter what, before they leave we're all going to get "The Kitchen Sink" from the Boardwalk. It's an enormous ice cream sundae that is LITERALLY in a basin. Should be AWESOME!
See ya real soon!

Well hello there! It's been a little while, hasn't it? Well I promise you it's not because I've been meaning to neglect this blog. I've just been a tad bit busy. So what's been going on?
Well, I've been doing Fantasmic! A LOT. As in just about every night. I have favorite parts of the show, have memorized much of the music, and I'm well on my way to knowing Mickey's finale dance. And even then, it's still an amazing show and I'm mesmerized each time I watch it. Crazy huh? It also means I know when maybe there were a few goofs. One night the Dragon (whom I have since learned is called "Vivian") was too wet to open, so Maleficent stood on her really tall podium and swung her staff around a lot. And John Smith was having a heck of a time last week. One night he didn't swing across on his rope, and then the next night he swung too far and slipped! Oops! That's okay, it made the action more harrowing. 
When I first went into this internship, I was REALLY EXCITED! Each night I looked forward to going to work because it was going to be something new! Something exciting! And I thought to myself, is it really going to be like this all the time? Surely once I've gotten the routine down, it will become duller, more like work and less like a new adventure. 
Well, after a month, I think it's time to reflect a little. I'm not going to say every night is still an exciting experience like those first few weeks were. That would be a bit of a stretch. But I will say that each night is something I still look forward to. Only now it's for different reasons. I've made tons of friends and now I look forward to going and seeing them. And without a doubt, interacting with guests is always a high point. When I worked for the rock gym at home, I used to joke about how my job sometimes meant making children cry. It was the truth in that case, because at the end of the day, the look on their face when I brought them back down from the very top was worth the "tough love". Well now my job is, without a doubt, to make children smile. I've begun to lose count of how many children I've made laugh and how many sad faces became smiles. That ability has become what I look forward to each time I go to work. Knowing that I can make family memories. I've been in tons of vacation photos and filmed a few times, dancing to some song decked out in Glow. Just last night, me and my fellow Cast members of Tower of Terror Merch put on an entirely improv concert for our guests, complete with High School Musical songs, some pretty funky beats tapped out on the Front desk, and dance moves that maybe got a bit out of hand... But the cool thing is, is that families will go home and look at those photos and that video and say "Remember when...". It's an amazing feeling, and one I hope I don't lose as I start racking up the months.
So this is an internship program...I guess a fairly reasonable question would be "What have I learned?" Well last week I learned how to deposit the money for the night. I don't think anybody would argue that Disney make A LOT of money. It takes a lot of dough to feed The Mouse. When I was first learning to count out the night's earnings, I found myself pausing and turning to the Coordinator that night, Andy, and saying "I don't think I've ever really held this much money". It's pretty intimidating! And your counts have to be correct too! The actual process is sort of long and requires a fair bit of paperwork and sequential actions. The cash room itself, where we go to deposit is SCARY! It's probably a bit smaller than your average dorm room and there are about fifty billion cameras in there. Okay...maybe not fifty billion, but still they can see EVERYTHING that goes on. And when you're making deposits you have to show your face to the camera and all sorts of other stuff. It's basically like going into a prison (not that I've ever done that before, just so we're clear).
In addition to counting money, I've also been learning a bit about the Disney style of leadership. There are posters all over the manager's offices. I was reading over them yesterday and I had to chuckle. Why? Because there were three "tenets" of Disney Leadership and once you got past the more Disney-esque flowery words, they all got whittled down to "Be, Know, Do". At that point the leader of that night was wondering why I was laughing. When I explained it to him, he thought it was cool, but didn't really understand why I was laughing. I guess you just have to go through NYLT for as many years at I have to understand how loaded those three words are...

Okay, so maybe we won't go THAT far, but I can say that my training is officially over and I have now "Earned my Ears". Yay!!!! What does that mean? I get to take the little red ribbon off my name tag and now when guests ask me a question I really should know. =/ Even though I've gone through training, I really am still learning about a few things and getting into the hang of living and working down here. I commented to one of my co-workers last night that each shift feels like an experience. I go and it's something new every day or night. It's wonderful, but just mentally and physically exhausting! That's why I haven't written anything since last weekend. This week has just been a whirlwind, but I'm here and I'll try to give you the highlights.

Tuesday: Day off. I slept and went to Wal-Mart, and that was the eventful part of my day. Meh...

Wednesday and Thursday: This was officially my second day of training, since my trainer called in sick on Monday. I had a wonderful lady as my trainer, named Aleida. Aleida es de Cuba =) We were together for both day two and three and she was exceedingly patient with all my questions and roundabout explanations. While with Aleida I had a few cool expereinces. I pin-traded with a deaf couple and got to use what limited sign language I knew (Basically "Have a good day" and "Thank you")  and I got to make a few Magical Moments. One in particular involved three little girls, Bailey, Lainey, and Whitney. They were at Disney World celebrating Bailey's and her sister's (Who was on Rockin' Roller Coaster) adoption. Bailey, Lainey, and Whitney were too short to ride the roller coaster, so they were waiting. We colored in pictures of the Disney Princesses and when they were done, I had them sign them and told them to make sure they went up on the fridge at home. It was adorable!!!

Friday: This was my Fantasmic training night. Fantasmic shifts are much different from normal shifts. I can understand why some people may not like them because they really are very tiring and they are only six hours long. =/ So you don't make as much money. But I enjoyed my Fantasmic shift. My trainer, Charlene, and I took a cart out to "HOJO", or the junction of Hollywood and Sunset Blvd, right in front of the Sorcerer Mickey hat. And of course, it was the first day of the last Star Wars Weekend, so we were out there for the Hyperspace Hoopla! I might have looked a little silly wearing so much blinking, spinning stuff and dancing to remixed Star Wars music, but I had a blast doing it, so there! I believe Charlene was thoroughly amused. We sold quite a bit too, so I'd say it was a successful night.
Because Fantasmic is a night shift, I didn't have to report until later, so I went to the park a bit early so I could get a Darth Vader chocolate, peanut butter cupcake. OHMYGOSHITWASAMAZING! And while I was in Darth's Mall (Get it??) I met up with a few members of the 501st, Florida Garrison. For those of you who don't know, the 501st was a legion of Clone troopers/Storm troopers known as "Vader's Fist". Anakin fought with them during the Clone Wars and kept them around after the Purge. The real-life 501st is a group of Star Wars fans who do appearances and charity work through foundations like Make-A-Wish, etc. I got to "talking shop" with them and they were pretty cool. Two were Cast members too. They gave me their cards and told me to drop them a line if I thought about joining up. Wow! I'm not much of a fan of the Empire or the Dark Side, but these guys were pretty cool and they are super-nerds of Star Wars like me! I might have to consider it!

Saturday: Saturday was my last day of training and I had Donald. Not Donald Duck, another Donald. He seemed quite impressed with my track record thus far and after seeing me work for about an hour out at the Rockin' Roller Coaster cart, determined that I was thoroughly prepared for my final test. So we went and did that before lunch and despite a few tricksey questions, I passed! The rest of my day consisted of stocking, though, because I had a weird shift time. It was also pouring, so there were a lot of people in the shop. Queue more Magical Moments! One little boy in particular stuck in my memory. His name was Josh and he was from England (it's so cute listening to a child speak British English!!!) Josh was a huge Star Wars fan and his favorite character is none other than THE OBI-WAN KENOBI! The Force is strong with this one! =) Josh was too short to go on Rockin' Roller Coaster, but we talked a bunch and it was so fun! Afterwards I got to meet Josh's dad (an ex-rocker himself) and we talked a bit more. It was still raining when they left, so Josh challenged his dad to a race to Tower of Terror. =)

Sunday: AKA Yesterday, was my first Fantasmic shift ALONE!!!! DUN DUN DUUUUNN!!! Nah, it wasn't really that bad. In fact, it was pretty fun. I took out another cart, this one on Sunset Blvd, right near the entrance of Fantasmic. We took rain gear and ponchos, but thankfully our pre-planning meant the weather held off. I sold A LOT of glowing, spinning stuff, but the cool part was that I got to finally see Danielle! Danielle first tipped me off to the College Program and  we'd been trying to find a time to meet up since I got down here, but all of our attempts fell through until one night Danielle came to Hollywood Studios and BAM! there I was! Go figure. She took a picture, so I probably have a picture of myself with my glow on floating around the Internet somewhere. It was really cool to meet up with her again. She starts her training for her full time position at Animal Kingdom Lodge today.
I also met another Star Wars fan, a young man named Danny. Danny was in Tae Kwon Do and of course had his lightsaber with him. He wanted to spar with me (I was waving around one of the Sorcerer Mickey Light Swords when he came by). Unfortunately I had to tell him no, but that I could teach him a few actual lightsaber moves. ;) Since the street was basically empty at 10:30 (the park closes at 10, but the last Fantasmic show is at 10:30), I had plenty of space to teach Danny a few of the lightsaber moves that I knew. His mom thought it was so cool that she filmed part of it. I rounded off that night coming back about fifteen minutes late, but Danny and his family went home with huge grins on their faces and hopefully a very fond memory of the last day of Star Wars weekend. Mission accomplished.

Tonight I have another Fantasmic shift. In fact I have a lot of Fantasmic shifts coming up. Since they're so short, I'm going to have to pick up a few more hours, but that just means I'll be looking to work at other locations. I've got my eye on a Merchandise shift on Main Street, USA. Hmm...

Whew! Well I finally have a day off. Training has been a whirlwind of interesting times. Let me see if I can break it down for you.

Saturday: Saturday was a classroom day...and also a really bad day to be riding the CP buses. It began at 0-Dark Thirty, also called the crack of dawn and a few more unsavory names that are not appropriate for Disney films and therefore will not be typed in this blog =] 
Unfortunately it didn't seem that our bus driver wanted to wake up early either, because the bus was late. And it continued to become more late during the run as the driver waited for exceedingly longer amounts of time at each stop, before coming to the last stop, Westclock and Disney University. It was a mad dash off the bus and a scramble into Disney University but I managed to clock in with only two minutes to spare. Made it!
My Disney University course was one all Merchandise cast members have to take and it had the Seuss-ian name "Merchantainment". (See what I did there =P ) But what is Merchantainment? Well according to the big letters on the back of the classroom, it's "Merchandise" + "Entertainment" = "Merchantainment". Got it? Good! The class itself was fine. They discussed a lot of things, including Loss Prevention techniques, so on and so forth. But then for the second part of the class, we got to move over to the registers. Because this Merchantainment room was not just a classroom with chairs. It also had about 20 registers set up in rows (think computer classroom style) that were fully armed and operational--eh I mean...functioning. That morning I rang up what must've been over 30 Tigger plush toys and 10 DVDs about Walt's life. But I got to learn the basics of the registers without having to feel bad about making the guest wait for me to find the right button. How cool is that!
After Merchantainment I went to Studios and picked up my costumes, and then proceeded to wait two hours for a bus that never showed. Riiiight...

Sunday: Sunday was "On With the Show", in which they gave us a bunch of lovely things, most of which I already had because Don was very thorough. We had yet another tour of the park (Hollywood Studios), and it was SO HARD! Not because what they were saying was too difficult to understand or not interesting, nor because the park was exceedingly large (It really isn't. It's one of the smaller ones). Sunday happened to be the second to last Sunday of Star Wars weekends. So they had the Star Wars music going and characters running about and little boys dressed up like Jango Fett. It was almost too much for me to take. My fellow cast members had to keep telling me to put my nerd away. However we did get to play with some clone troopers a little. We were walking right by them when my fellow cast member Tiffany steps right up to one and sings "Stop! In the name of love!" I would've loved to see the face of the guy inside, but no such luck through those helmets. They did, however, proceed to follow her for a moment before moving on.
After our tour we went into a presentation with Wes (one of the cast members who was handling On With the Show). I will say this about all the training I've done so far. It has been entertaining. I have not met a single cast trainer who stepped up and gave a boring, monotone lecture. They've all been funny (and sometimes Disney-punny) and exceedingly well-presented. And if you didn't know this, each park has it's own vision for success. While I won't share the Hollywood Studios one with you directly, I will say that it incorporates the quote above. "We welcome you to a Hollywood that never was--and always will be." That's taken directly from the dedication plaque, from 1989, given by Michael Eisner. It tells you everything you need to know about Hollywood Studios, incorporating the parts that are historically accurate, and the few liberties that were taken. Hollywood Studios isn't an exact replica of Hollywood at any time, but rather it's an image of the glitz and glamour that people associate with Hollywood. I thought that was so cool!
After "On With the Show" I finally got to go out and enjoy Star Wars Weekend to the fullest! I got an Aurebesh nametag...

...Which I will be allowed to wear this coming weekend when it's the final Star Wars weekend of the year =( I also got an R2-D2 mickey ears hat, as well as a gift for a fellow Star Wars nerd back home who couldn't make it. I went on Star Tours (the line was LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG) and even got to see James Arnold Taylor's presentation called "Obi-Wan and Beyond". I thoroughly enjoyed that part. It was actually really inspiring! I also got pictures of a few characters, including Darth Maul, Shaak Ti, some Stormtroopers, a Tusken Raider, Captain Rex, and a really distant, creepy picture of Darth Vader (paparazzi style from the bushes). To round off the evening, I got to see Hyperspace Hoopla! That was really cool, especially because I'm scheduled to work all next weekend and won't get to see it again =(

Monday: Well...this day was a bit rough. I was supposed to have my first day of training, but my trainer unfortunately called in sick. Apparently he never does that, so I hope he gets better! But it meant that I couldn't work on register. I had the option of going home, but I'd already woken up super early and rode the bus an hour to get there...so I decided to stay. I learned a lot about stocking, including how fast ice melts in the Florida sun (on a good day, it might last 20-30 minutes, on a hot day, forget it!), how NOT to turn on the water to fill up the Squeeze Breezes (those little fan squeeze bottle things), and how to put t-shirts on hangers. Not one of the most exciting days, but I got to meet a bunch of pretty cool people over at Rockin' Roller Coaster, including the lovely Peaches, who runs the stock room over there. And I still got to interact with some guests. I was taking the Ice cart out to the stand to replenish the ice when a little boy came up to me and said "Excuse me, ma'am, can I look at your pins?" So cute!!!! And really polite! I see potential in that one =) Overall I still had a good day. The training that I missed out on will be made up tomorrow, which means I get overtime this week (Yahoo!).

So that's my update for now. I'll be posting my photos from Star Wars weekend. Friday is my first Fantasmic night and it will either go really well, or be "not my favorite". Apparently it takes a certain kind of person to like Fantasmic shifts...

After half a week of twiddling my thumbs and watching my roommate's impressive DVD collection, I've finally started. I'm sure in a few weeks it will sound crazy, but I just really want to get the ball rolling, to get to work! Blasphemy, I know.
This morning was an eaaarllyyyy morning. And you have to groan it out like that. A nice and early five AM wake-up call so that I could attend Disney Traditions. What is Traditions? Well, it's a training course. Not only do you learn about the history of the company, but you also learn about their standard of business and some basic legal dos and don'ts. Then you get into what they refer to as "The Four Keys" of Disney. They are a basic service model, designed to provide castmembers with basic tenets to aid their on-the-job decision-making process. They are:

I'll give you the short version, but basically Disney asked it's guests what they cared about most and what they liked the most about the Disney Experience and these are the four basics that they came up with. After we were introduced to these four keys, we were then taken to the Magic Kingdom, to see these four keys in action. THIS was the cool part. Unfortunately I have no pictures because most of the day I was in an area that was considered "backstage" and you DO NOT take photos of backstage. EVER. It's a fire-able offence and you know why? Because of that third key, Show. Nobody wants to be that guy/girl who crushes the hopes and dreams of every five-year old.
So we went down to the Utilidor, actually the FIRST floor of the Magic Kingdom. "Onstage", the park we all know and love, is actually not at ground level. Go figure. Being down there was pretty cool, and believe it or not, if you had even a semi-decent understanding of the layout up above, you could keep track of where you were below ground. We passed right under Cinderella castle and Ariel said hello to us. We went in around Fantasyland and came out at Main Street, U.S.A. It didn't seem all the far, but then I suppose you don't have to wind around all those twisty pathways like you do in the park.
After we came back to the classroom, they went over the keys in more detail and talked a bit about The Green Standard (Disney is as sustainability conscious as Dickinson, go figure) and a few of their other programs. Then we had a special visitor, Mickey Mouse!
Up until that point, everyone in the room had begun to resemble the bored college students in the middle of their three hour lecture. But as soon as Mickey Mouse stepped through the door, it was like everyone had reverted to five. And he brought some really cool stuff with him...

Ta-Dah! Yup, so it's official. I've got the nametag and the awesome ID badge that lets me play in the parks for free and get super cool discounts at a bunch of places nearby. Me and one of the girls from my group this morning decided to try out that free-admission perk and went back to Magic Kingdom. I will say, it's very different going to the park with a friend, or a peer at least, versus your family. We had so much fun and got to go on a lot of things. And the park was not nearly as crowded as I'm used to it being, going in June and July. Word of advice, if you can go in May, do it! Same stuff, less people. Not a single Fastpass kiosk was sold out and I could actually show up at a show five minutes to and be able to see the show without being rammed into by strollers and people in scooters. WAY BETTER.
So my next stop is Hollywood Studios tomorrow where I will be training for eight and a half hours in...well I'm not really sure. BUT I have to go to Costuming, so maybe it will be some more fun stuff.

Hello everyone!
Welcome to the first post of my blog. For as long as I can remember, the Walt Disney company and all of its characters have been a huge part of my life. As a 90s kid, I grew up right in the middle of Disney's major motion picture cartoons. Movies like "The Little Mermaid", "Mulan", "The Lion King", and "Hercules" first sparked my imagination and continue to, even today. My parents first took me to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida when I was three. My mom was pregnant with my brother and to this day, I think she must've been a superhero, chasing me around the park with a big tummy. I went back again when I was five, and this time my brother got to see it too! 
Since that first visit, my family has gone to Disney World more times than I can recall. It has become a preferred spot for our family vacation and over the years we've taken family and friends along. Even now, at 22, Disney still holds magic for me. It may not be the same as it was when I was five, but there is just something about it that is awe-inspiring. 
That being said, during the years that my family and I have gone down to Disney World, we always talked about (jokingly) one day working at Disney World. My dad still wants to retire down to Florida and pilot either a boat or a monorail =) We talked about it and talked about it, but it never seemed like an actual possibility. Until...
Last fall a friend of mine became a Castmember as part of the Disney College Program. I saw her pictures and I will admit, I was so green with jealousy I was practically Donald Duck. I asked her about the program and she directed me to the Disney College Program site. From then, I checked every week until this February when the application finally opened. I submitted my application the day it opened, knowing that this was without a doubt what I wanted to do after I graduated college. The application process was extremely quick, but no less nerve-wracking than every other job I applied for. More so, in fact, because unlike the other jobs, this one meant so much more to me.
An application, online questionnaire, and a phone interview later,I was officially offered a position with the Disney College Program. If you'd like to know my reaction, well this is the closest approximation...

Needless to say, I wanted to accept right away. But my parents, ever caring, wanted me to take some time to consider the offer, particularly the financial side of things (gotta be able to support myself). That night I did a complete financial analysis and the next day I had officially accepted. It was the shortest consideration I've ever given anything.
So, as I anxiously wait until May, I've begun this blog. I will hopefully be updating it regularly once I arrive in Florida and join the ranks of Disney Castmembers.
-Katie