It didn't hit me how soon my program was ending until last week. I was doing laundry with a small, Filipino woman named Ester- a quiet woman with a huge heart and a sharp tongue if you dare mix the darks and the lights together. Usually she keeps to herself, being one of the rare adults who actually acts like an adult. But that day, over the routine motion of drying and folding, she asked, "So, when does your program end?" I was surprised, but explained that I was leaving in about a month. Ester looked me straight in the eye and replied in her sweet, quiet accent, "That's sad, I'm going to miss you. You are one of the hard workers here. And you only talk kindly about people, not like some of the other girls here. We are sad to see you go." Oh. My. Freaking. Gosh. I was so close to bawling on all the fresh laundry. I had never even heard her speak that much at one time, let alone say something so personal and kind. The fact that this strong, relentlessly hardworking woman was going to miss me touched my heart. As selfish as it sounds, I honestly want my new Disney family to miss me when I leave in 22 painfully short days. I want to have been such a loving, positive force in their lives that they feel my lack of presence. Is that self-centered? Probably, but this is an honest, "hi I'm human" blog. Not an "I'm a perfect radiant nugget of impeccable selflessness" blog. So perhaps I want to have been inspiring. Maybe a few years down the line, my coordinators will think, "Hey, remember when that weird CP Jenn wanted us to have an Easter egg hunt during work? That didn't entirely suck, we should do that again." Or, "Remember when it was pouring rain outside and that crazy kid Jenn had towel sliding races with her coworkers down the hallway? Fun stuff right there." Disney, the exhausting, magic-making love of my life: I hope I've made my mark. I hope these past few months I've been able to contribute my own pixie dust, my own sunshine. I put sticky notes with positive messages on the mirrors ("on a scale of 1 to 10, you're a 100!" "hope today is as amazing is you are!"), draw ~albeit terrible~ pictures for the performers on their costume labels, and try to feed people whenever I can (grandma status). Of course there's that thing where I'm human, so I've had my fair share of complaining and grumpy shifts. But if I've made at least one person's day a little bit brighter, this journey has all been worth it. And I still have 22 more days to make magic and toss out terrible puns like word confetti. To support my coworkers in any way possible, to spend late nights laughing with my roommates, to bake even more cookies (goodbye paychecks, hello sugar rush), to make a difference. Because Disney World is just a place, a physical shell of an opportunity. But as my homeboy Walt Disney says, "You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality." It's the people here that have made my program so amazing- my new family, my coordinators and managers, even that guy who runs the food truck and somehow knows my name. I owe them so much, and I can't wait to fill the next 22 days with new best friends and a whole lot of Florida sunshine.
