Welcome. As some of you
may or may not know I will be doing the Disney College Program this upcoming
semester (January-May). The Disney College Program is something I have wanted
to do since I was in seventh grade; so it has been eight years now. The exact
place and time that I learned about the Disney College Program was when my
family and I were on vacation at Disney World and we met a cast member at the
big pin trader place in Epcot. She attended Brockport University which is only
about two hours away from where I live/grew up. Ever since that conversation
about the Disney College Program, it has been one of the few things that I have
ever REALLY wanted to do.
This was my second time
around applying for the Disney College Program, and it was one of those things
if I got in great, if I didn’t that is okay. So I applied back in August
because why not and within that day, I received my web based interview and had
my phone interview in two days. The phone interview went good and then I
waited. After going through the application process once I decided not to worry
so much about it and just focus on other things. One day when I was helping my
dad put a pool liner in I ran inside real quick to check my phone and from some
reason I felt like I just had to check my email. And the second I opened it
there it was… “Congratulations!” an email from Disney saying that I have been
accepted into the Disney College Program. Now, most people would probably get
really excited and jump around, yelling, crying, and just showing all around
excitement. Not me though. Don’t know why but that just wasn’t the case. I went
outside and told my dad that I got accepted and that was just about it. Based
on my excitement you would probably have thought that I was rejected. Something
that I have wanted for so long and so badly, you would have to bet that I would
have been ecstatic about being accepted. But no.
I have been accepted for
custodial which I am really excited about. It was one of my top roles and after
my interview I knew that if I was going to get accepted, it was going to be in
custodial. Custodial is one of those roles, that when people here it they just
give you a sympathetic “oh”. Custodial is actually said to be one of the best
roles on the program. I will be the judge of that after a few months but I
think it will be a good job. Custodial gets so much guest interaction that many
other “roles” can’t match. While other jobs might talk to more people
throughout the day, it is more of a quantity because of how many people you
have to talk to in during the day. This results in like five second
conversations. As with custodial you are roaming around and have more time to
talk depending on what your responsibilities are for the day. Oh, and I am not
working in food. That is a major plus.
Now that I have been
accepted a few months I have found the Facebook group pages which are defiantly
good and bad. Good, because you can meet so many people before your program. It
is important to know a few people beforehand, I wouldn’t want to move away and
not know anyone where I am going. From previous experiences, knowing people before
you move somewhere can have such a positive impact on the move. I have met a
roommate or two. This is also a very important aspect of the Facebook pages.
Matt, who seems like a cool guy and has a good sense of humor which is very
important for anyone who has to deal with me. I also met Carrie who goes to
Buffalo State, and we have actually met in person. She is a really friendly
person and is perfect for Disney. But, one of my favorite stories of how I met
someone on the Facebook page was a girl named Nikki. Now, one morning I see a
post from this girl and her hometown is Buffalo, NY and she goes to ECC (where
I currently go). So I just comment something along the lines of “Hey, I also go
to ECC” and she says “Which campus…. Wait are you in Public Speaking on
Wednesday afternoons?” We are actually in the same class and sit near each
other and had no clue that either of us were doing the college program until
that moment.
Now to fast-forward
because I don’t want this to be an overly long post I will fast-forward to
where I am now. Just a little over a month until I arrive at Disney and I am
very excited. I do think about the program every day but the manner in which I
think about the program is a bit unorthodox. I don’t necessarily think about
what is going to happen on the program. No matter what you imagine about
anything really, it just isn’t going to happen like that. So, why waste my time
worrying or even creating unrealistic expectations that just will not be met?
The best way to describe it is I can just be sitting there and all of the
sudden I will be like “oh my god, I am actually moving to Disney World!” That
is the best way to describe it. I am just looking at it as a whole and am going
to have no crazy ideas/expectations on what will happen.
One last thing… Disney
never sent me the highly coveted purple envelope containing the famous
Congratulations card. So I created my own. This masterpiece of art got
somewhere around 500 likes in the Facebook page (which I try to avoid posting
in) but when a brilliant idea like this is sitting right there you just have to
share it with the world.
