The Waiting is the Hardest Part...

As I said in my last blog post I'm changing the face of this blog in order to document my experiences in the Walt Disney World College Program. There will still be the occasional post about license plates and such, but it's mostly going to be WDWCP from here on out. Now that we've got that straight, away we go!

Unfortunately there's not a whole lot to say so far...I know, what a let-down! So basically I'll give you a rundown of what's gone on so far.

So I attended a live presentation for the College Program at my school, Nicholls State University. It was great! Extremely entertaining and it got me very excited about trying it out, so much so that I went straight from the presentation to a computer to do the web based interview that night. I passed the web based interview with no problem and was advised to call to schedule my phone interview...whew, one step down and several more to go. Since it was after working hours I called the next morning, February 15th and scheduled my phone interview for February 17th after my last class so that I would have time to get home and settled in and prepared. Being the dork I am, I downloaded all of the job descriptions for all of the roles that I had selected on the role checklist. My interviewer was a little late in calling, but my interview started pretty close to on-time and...

Right away she asked the question that I had been dreading...do I have any visible tattoos or piercings. If anything was going to put a quick end to my dream of working for Disney it would be this, and I knew I had two choices: tell them the truth and take my chances or lie and risk being found out and possibly terminated later. I chose the truth. I told her about all of my tattoos since a lot of them are visible on my forearms and would need to be covered. She immediately put my mind at ease, telling me that it wouldn't be a deciding factor in whether I got in or not. With that out of the way and a HUGE sigh of relief we continued on to the rest of the interview, which from that point on went as smooth as silk. I was relaxed, happy, and smiling, and I know it came across in my voice. She asked me why I wanted to work for Disney and I happily told her that it had been my dream since I was a little kid. We then talked about the roles that I had selected and why I had selected them. My number one choice was transportation and the rest of the interview seemed to center mostly around that. She asked a lot of questions and we laughed and joked to the point where it felt more like an easy conversation than an interview. What was supposed to be a 15-20 minute interview lasted almost 45 minutes and it was very enjoyable. My interviewer was enthusiastic and so was I! So after the interview was over she told me that it would be 4-6 weeks before I would hear a response by email so I hung up and prepared myself for a long and nerve-wracking wait...Day 1, nothing, Day 2, nothing, Day 3, well, you get the picture.

To try and make the wait a little more bearable I started scouring facebook and found a group specifically for people who had applied to the Fall/Fall Advantage programs. Having applied for Fall Advantage I joined the group and started reading their discussion boards and replying to topics. I also found out via the group that people were waiting on average 3-4 weeks for a response. I was only on day 4 so I figured that I would be in for the same wait. Day 5, nothing, Day 6...yeah, Day 6. I was working in my studio at school, and as usual I had my laptop on playing music on Pandora. I looked up to skip a song and saw that I had new email in my inbox. I opened it up and saw that the sender was "Disney College Recruiting" and the email header said simply "Your Invitation." I'm only on Day 6, there's no way it could come that fast...my thoughts were all over the place as I clicked on the email. All I remember seeing was a big purple header and the word "Congratulations!" I think I only actually read the first two lines of the message, just enough to find out that after only 6 days I had been accepted to the program, and for my first choice role to boot!!! I had been accepted for Fall Advantage to work in transportation!!!

At that point I ran out of my studio like a madman, smiling from ear to ear! I rushed to call my mom because she was the only person who knew that I had applied...and she didn't answer her phone! I sent her a text message that said only "CALL ME!!!" She called me back and was ecstatic to hear the news. We set up a family dinner for that weekend so that I could tell the rest of my family. They were out of their minds with happiness when they found out. We had a great dinner and talked about the program and what I could expect. After the euphoria of the email and the fun of the family dinner reality quickly set in...it's still only February...I still have to wait three more months before I actually go to Florida to start the program!!!! Time to start waiting again!!!

So now here I am, 76 days away from May 17th, the day that I leave Louisiana to start a new life in Florida, and I'm going out of my mind!!! As if I didn't think about Disney enough already, now I spend large chunks of every day on the CP website, reading everything I can about the program, chatting with fellow CP cast members on skype, and wishing that the semester would hurry up and end so that I can graduate from college and get on the road! Oh well, we can't have it all, or can we?

I'm 76 days from fulfilling a lifelong dream, I graduate in May with my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, and I'm going to work for Disney!!! Nah, I really couldn't ask for anything more than that!

Until next time, keep moving forward, because for me there's no turning back!!!