"So, are you going to be like, Goofy or something?"

I went to Disney World for the first time when I was 13. Right smack dab in the middle of the terrible teen years. At the time I was...different. My wardrobe had two colors, black and red. My favorite thing was to wear as much black eyeliner as possible. I considered it a successful day if it didn't smudge. It was Christmas day and the last present under our tree was this flat looking box and it was for me and my brother. My mom was videotaping and told us to open it. When we took off the wrapping paper it was a plain Kohl's box. I remember thinking, "If these are matching outfits I swear to God..." (probably threatening to be more brooding and annoying. Cute right?) but boy, was I wrong. There were brochures for Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom. There were Disney tshirts and hats. It didn't hit me until I saw a pin that said, "My first trip to Disney".

I think I jumped about 50 feet in the air.

I was so excited. "I'M GOING TO DISNEY!!!" We left at about 2 in the morning on the 26th, and that's when I pretty much did a 360. The whole trip is such a blur now but I remember one thing, walking into Magic Kingdom, looking around and saying,

"I'm going to work here someday"

Fast forward to my senior year of high school. I had already decided that college wasn't going to work. It wasn't that I didn't want to go I mean, I have really good grades and could probably get into a lot of different schools, but there's something that has never been my friend: $$$$$$$$ So, I decided that I would probably work for a year or two and then go to a school. To me, college is something I should be paying for, not my parents. They've paid for enough. But I found the Disney Career Start Program one day by accident when I was looking at the Disney College Program website (I was more sad that I wouldn't be doing that, I could've cared less about school :p) and I was so excited! I showed my mom and dad and they were excited about it too. Others though, not so much:

"So are you going to be like, Goofy or something?"

(No, I'm way too short to be Goofy.)

"Won't you get sick of Disney?"

(I haven't yet so why would I...)

"What if you hate it?"

It scared me how much I had to defend something that I wanted to do. I hated when teachers would go around the room and ask, "Where are you going to College?" because when they got to me I would start, "Well, I'm applying for this Disney Career Start Program, and hopefully I get in..." But now, I can proudly say "I'm doing the Disney Career Start Program!" It's exciting and scary all at once but I'm in! So now when people ask me if I'm, like, going to be Goofy or something, I can proudly say:

No, but he'll be one of my co-workers!!!