Orlando, Florida

I have always wanted to travel, but actually facing leaving home was one of the scariest things I have ever done. I deal with anxiety on the daily, so needless to say getting on a plane for the first time in eleven years was a bit overwhelming. There are no words to describe the fear I felt as my flight left LAX late Tuesday night. I wrote down a few thoughts as we flew.

There is no way this plane will take off. We are going way too slow. We're going to die. I don't know any of these people, but we're in this together. Why are we turning? We need to go back. Shoot, my mom told me I left my towel. I can air dry. This seat is tiny. (Mind you I have claustrophobia). This lady smells like cherries. Oh my gosh my stomach is on the floor. There's no way we're in the air. My ears are going to explode. Los Angeles is so pretty at night. Ew, gross that's all pollution? Hey I can see my house from here. Is that the ocean or a dark field? Where are we now? I swear this is like that one episode of breaking bad. My pillow is really soft. Pretzels or peanuts? I need to pee, but can't get up. Texas is huge. Now this seat is cozy. Wait we're already descending. Gah my ears! Florida looks like spread out islands. There's so much water. We're all going to splat on this landing strip. Brace for impact. I can't feel my face. Please let me get off now. I look 50 shades of ratchet.

We landed a little after 5 am eastern time. I couldn't check into my apartment until 8. When I was reunited with my 100 pound luggage, I paid for a cart so I could explore this massive airport. I felt a bit like Mr. Potter looking for platform 9 3/4.

 

God loves me because I found a Krispy Kreme right as it opened. I also stopped at a Starbucks. (side note: my roommate had a Chipotle bag and I almost cried). Thanks Florida for having some places I love.

I passed my remaining time by talking to security and making conversation with janitors. That place was a ghost town. After I waited way too long for a shuttle to get me (sleep with one eye open mears transportation), I made it to Vista Way apartments for check-in. The lines were long and it was cold. Little did I know, they were also taking ID pictures. I look like a tired cock-eyed fish with a weird glimmer of aspiration in one eye.

 

 

And yes they label you based on the wonderful age of 21 because if you're younger, you're placed in "wellness" housing (non-alcoholic). They have rules and regulations that are comparable to that of BYU-Idaho which I didn't think was possible. I'm not complaining because I think its great. They have constant security at the gate and you can't enter without your designated housing ID which will help put my mother's nerves to rest about strangers.

Wednesday was everyone's first day so there were plenty of mix-ups, but leave it to me to sleep through casting. I wanted to vomit and cry and set something on fire all at the same time. Thankfully I found a bus that took me to casting, but once I arrived, half of the booths were shut down. They told me to come back in the morning at 9 which didn't sound great, but there were only a few of us the next morning so it went by fast. BONUS: met important people, did some networking, and the doorknobs were top notch.

 

At our housing meeting, I met a video production manager for the Disney company. I talked to him after and he gave me an email to contact to set up shadowing at an upcoming event for the program! I was beyond excited to get that and can't wait to try and work more with this.

 

 

My apartment is decent. My roommates are perfect (we spent last night at the jacuzzi then worked out then watched girl code it was great). The weather is amazing. My job is fantastic. I start training tomorrow. I'm going to Magic Kingdom on Monday. I think I'm going to really like it here.