I was blessed enough to live 45 minutes away from Disney World until I was ten. On one of my Grandma and my many day trips, we encountered a CP who was working at the Magic of Disney Animation attraction. My Grandma noticed that her name tag said a college instead of a city beneath her name and asked her why. She told us the whole story of her college program experience and how much she loved it. Ever since then I've kept it in mind and dreamed of working at Disney.
I moved to South Florida shortly after that and I've lived here ever since. It's only three hours south of WDW though, so I still visit every few months or so. Disney is my favorite place and I'm happier there than anywhere else. When I'm there I feel like I'm home. Over the past year that I've been eligible to apply, I've talked to every CP I came in contact with about their experience and their overall opinions on the program. With every story I became more and more obsessed with being able to participate.
My application process was kind of insane. I applied the day applications came out (September 5th). More than anything, I was terrified that I wouldn't make it past the WBI, because I had heard so many horror stories about it being difficult to pass. So, when I saw that I was moving on to the phone interview, I couldn't believe it. My PI was on September 8th at 7:30 PM. I felt so prepared for my interview, but my interviewer rushed me and didn't seem very into our conversation. I was terrified that I blew it, especially once I saw that my interview only lasted 17 minutes! My boyfriend had his interview exactly an hour after mine and his went so wonderfully; I knew he was going to get it. And he did! On September 24th, he received his acceptance email! His role is attractions, which I called from the beginning, even though his top role was custodial. I was so happy for him, because he had doubted himself since day one, but I knew all along how much he deserved it.
Every day that passed after that was increasingly difficult, because I became even more worried that I wouldn't get in. I cried a lot and was actually really irrational, but I just couldn't help it. Especially when my third week was up and I still hadn't heard anything at all! I emailed Disney around 11pm on my 22nd day of waiting. I got an email back the following morning saying "thank you for notifying us, please keep checking your dash." At work that day, I had a long talk with God. I decided maybe all I needed to do was have legitimate faith that I was going to get accepted and that my email was going to be in my inbox when I got off work. And it was! I found out at the end of my shift in the bathroom of Old Navy, of all places! I ran out of work and jumped in my car to drive to Target, where Adam works, because he wanted to be the first to know.
I walked to the electronics department and found him, trying to stay as calm as possible so I wouldn't give it away. I asked for his assistance finding the Little Mermaid DVDs, because it's my favorite movie and it had just re-released that day. He pointed to the huge display devoted to my favorite princess. I made him walk over to it with me and said "you know, the really cool thing about this DVD is that I'll probably be selling many just like it in the store I work in as a merchandise cp." And it took him a minute to get what I said and then he hugged me super tight and it was just such a great moment.
So, October 1st, on my 23rd day of waiting, I WAS ACCEPTED. I think it's a pretty cool day to have been accepted, because it was also Magic Kingdom and Epcot's birthday. And not only was I accepted, but I was somehow blessed enough to get one of my top three roles. God is so amazing and I'm so thankful dcp is part of His plan for me.
Over the past 24 days, I've found it massively difficult to concentrate on school. All I want to do is talk to my roommates & other cp friends and watch vlogs and Disney films. I've never been so distracted from my studies in my life, but I absolutely cannot wait to move. This is all I've ever wanted and in 86 days it's all going to be real.
