Dynamo of Volition

Hi There!

I can't believe it, but it's been almost 2 years since I posted. I really meant to post throughout my Professional Internship at Disney for Fairy Tale Weddings, but life got in the way. I used to wonder how people didn't have time for things when I had two jobs and went to school full time and still managed to make room for everything- but I get it now. I GET IT. The whole year went by so so fast. And this year isn't any different. I remember my older family members saying how the year just felt like it flew by while I was sitting there going "Really?" in my head because I was waiting for school to be over and my life to start. Now I wish I could just take a breath without another month passing by in the blink of an eye.

The main reason for this post is to update you all on my life the past almost 2(!) years. It was so great looking through my posts, and re-living those moments. I've had such an amazing ride thanks to Disney and Michigan State University.

I have to break it to you- brace yourselves....I no longer work at Disney World. I left the Happiest Place on Earth. Why? I'll get to that. But I wanted to get the elephant out of the room as quickly as possible. No, it wasn't because of anything bad. I never used to believe that things happen for a reason, but there is a sequence that life takes, and I believe I'm going with the flow that my river of life is going, so to speak.

Now, where to start?

How do I catch you up without boring you to tears? How do I fit in all the highlights when literally almost every second was a highlight? It's impossible. But I'll try.

So the last post ended with me in Georgia, waiting to check in to my new house the next day. On January 6, I veered to the left towards Orlando, and my Grandparents veered to the right towards Clearwater. The woman who I had been in contact with for our house said that we could have a 5 bedroom, 3 bathroom house at Solana Resort off of US 27 for a month if we didn't mind moving again in February to the smaller one (4 bedroom/3 bathroom). Of course, we all agreed and moved into our gated community home in Davenport. It was beautiful, in the back corner of the subdivision. It was quiet, and it was a quick 15-20 minute drive to work for all of us.

The great thing about Disney is that it helps you network without even trying. You meet so many cool people just being associated with Disney. My roommates were prime examples of that. Sarah was my roommate during my college program back in 2012, and we just so happened to get Professional Internships at the same time, too. It made it easier going into this knowing at least one person. She got the coveted one spot at Yellow Shoes; the full service, in-house advertising agency for Disney. She made a custom map that was sent out for the Mine Train Press Event, and got paid to draw all day.

Geneve was from Singapore, but went to college at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Her Professional Internship was in Social Media at the Team Disney building near Downtown Disney. From what I gathered, she did a lot of poring over newspapers and cutting out any info concerning Disney. She also got to go on a lot of fun field trips for Disney, too. For example, she went to the Give Kids the World Village in Kissimmee. She also got to be a part of the high profile press events, like when the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride opened in the new Fantasyland, completing the years-long process of "New Fantasyland". And when the Magic Bands were still a mysterious, amazingly cool new thing, she got to go to the official My Magic + event and breathe the same air as Samantha Brown and Tom Staggs.

My last roommate was Jackie, from Portland, Oregon. She got the Professional Intern position at Disney Creative Media, which meant she got to be a photographer for different events. She shadowed a few weddings, so we knew the same people since she worked in the editing room most of the time, editing photos from the weddings I helped assist on. Basically, all of my roommates were and are ridiculously talented and creative. And little ol' me, interning with Fairy Tale Weddings.

So there we were. 4 girls with no idea what the next 6 months had in store for us, but ready to open the door to our futures.

Moving

I'm currently on my way to Florida to begin my professional internship on the 8th. Moving can be a scary thing- leaving friends and family for the unknown...but it can also be the best thing to happen. You grow as a person by putting yourself in situations that are new and you may surprise yourself by how you deal with them.



I'm very lucky to have family who lives in Florida- only about an hour and a half away in Clearwater, and my grandparents will only be 10 minutes away until March because they are snow birds.

In November, I finished out the football season with my suites at Spartan Signature Catering,


went to my first MSU basketball game

and attended a reception for graduating seniors and met President Simon.

That was just November.

In December, I was one busy lady! I started out the month by traveling to Indianapolis with my friends Megan and Emma for the Big Ten Championship game. We had a blast, which was only enhanced by our big win, making us Legends Division champions! Couches were burned, and all of Indianapolis and East Lansing celebrated.



The next week-end, I graduated from Michigan State University. It was a perfect day and an even more fun night with friends. My friend Hannah turned 21, so of course we had to show her EL nightlife,
and it was Megan and my first time at Ricks as alumni.




3 days after graduation, I left for NYC with my friend Fei Fei to have my last winter break. I got to see Cali, my friend from culinary school, and Emma, my friend from MSU. I am so lucky to have so many friends all over the country. From California to New York and so many places in between, I have lots of people who are open to me visiting them and for that I am very thankful :)

The Christmas tree this year was beautiful!




Cali invited us to come to her restaurant, Maze by Gordon Ramsay at the London. She spoiled us rotten, and I had one of the top dining experiences of my life!


I came home Christmas Eve, and the rest was a blur up to now. I'm in a hotel room in Georgia, and will be arriving around 4 tomorrow to see my new house, and hopefully meet up with some people! My first day at my work location is January 13th, which also happens to be my brother Tyler's 12th birthday.


Wish me luck!

A Dream Come True! REALLY!!!!

It happened! I got my dream job, right out of college! The weight has been lifted from my shoulders and it is such a relief to know that I have a job before graduating :) I accepted the role as a cast member for Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings team. This has been my goal for well over 2 years, and all my hard work in school and at my jobs have paid off. I am so lucky to be one of the few seniors who not only has a job lined up, but it was a much easier path than many people will have, and I don't discount that at all. I realize how fortunate I am and appreciate my journey even more. My first day will be January 8th, but my first day at the workplace will be January 13th, which is my brother Tyler's 12th birthday. The end of my college program back in 2012 was my Aunt Sally's birthday, May 18th. It sure makes it easy to remember the important dates! I can't wait to figure out where I'll be living, who I'll be living with, and meeting my new co-workers and supervisors. I'm so anxious to start this journey, but so glad I'll be spending the holidays with my family before I leave. I will be in Florida in 65 days! And I graduate in 39 days. So many countdowns.

I went to Savannah this past week-end with Bernadette, Samantha, and Caren. The weather was absolutely perfect and everything was so wonderful. Me, Bernadette, and Samantha spent the night at Bernadette's Wednesday night and finished up our costumes, and left Thursday morning to head to Kentucky to pick Caren up. We stopped in Ohio and got some Skyline Chili, a place none of us had ever been to before. Our waitress told the manager we had never been there before, and we got a goodie bag filled with Skyline's staple items including a bib, oyster crackers, which are their appetizers, York peppermint patties, apparently they're the biggest distributors or manufacturers of them, and some coupons.


We got to Caren's apartment in Kentucky and drove to Nashville, where we enjoyed dinner at City House. We split some amazing items, which included Frico:Montasio cheese and potato, Ciccoli with white beans, salsa verde and bread crumbs, and pizza with house made belly ham, mozzarella, grana padano, oregano, and chiles.


We left Friday morning for Savannah, and along the way stopped in Atlanta. We went to lunch at a place called TacoMac, and stopped at Starbucks, which was great because I grabbed a mug as a souvenir. We also went to the Monetary Museum at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. We got a bag of shredded money and learned quite a bit of the history of money. We also learned that up to $12,000,000 is shredded daily.

When we got to Savannah, we checked into our hotel and got ready for the night. We dressed up in our minion costumes, and it was great that we decided to wear those outfits first because it was a bit chilly that night. We went on a hearse tour, which was awesome!

After the tour, we headed across the street to the Moon River Brewing Company and Samantha warmed us up with some Fireball shots!

We had some delicious dinner as well with stuffed mushrooms, leeks, and bbq pork.

Next, we headed to a martini bar called Jen's and Friends, which miiiight be my favorite place ever. The ladies were so great, and there were over 300 martinis to choose from. Bernadette got a Rice Krispies martini, with marshmallow fluff and rice krispies on the rim, Samantha got a Swedish Fish, Caren got a Milky Way, and I got a chai tea latte martini.
We then headed to a club, and everyone was loving our costumes! People would yell out, "MINIONS!!!"

We went to a few other bars, including the Jinx, which was entertaining because of a guy who realllly liked Bernadette, and at one point we all looked at each-other and yelled "Run!!!" and the four minions went running out of the bar, down the street and around the corner to the alley. We didn't blend in with our bright yellow and were easily seen by passers by. That night was fantastic.

The next day, we woke up and explored Savannah. We went to The Pirate's House for lunch and had an amazing fried green tomato BLT and some she crab soup.

We split it because we knew we were going to get the buffet for dinner at Lady and Son's, Paula Deen's restaurant. The story behind the Pirate's house is that it is the location where America's first experimental garden was. It is also where the saying "shanghai'd" came from. Pirates would negotiate for seamen who were shorthanded and would knock men out who were drinking and drag them down the underground tunnel onto the ship, where they would wake up in the morning. Here is the link if you'd like to know more about the interesting history behind the Pirate's House.



After some more sightseeing, we headed to our hotel to get dressed up in our ice cream costumes, and went back for our 5:30 pm reservation at Lady and Sons. While we were eating, we heard a very recognizable laugh, and we ran for it. Paula was actually at her restaurant! It was so awesome because every trip we go on, we see someone famous! I mean I knew there was a chance that she could be there, but still, it was so cool!

Her daughter-in-law took our picture, which I didn't know until I asked her if she wanted me to take a picture for her, haha.

After dinner and all that excitement, we met outside the restaurant for our own private tour for just the four of us! Our tour guide, Bonnie, took us to many places and told us some great haunted stories at many locations.

This was an area during the Yellow Fever epidemic where rich people were able to build a tunnel to walk from their homes to the water so that they wouldn't have to breathe the same air as the sick people.

She dropped us off 2 hours later at the Pink House, which was a location for a murder that we heard about on both Bonnie's tour and the hearse tour. It's called the Pink House because the owner had one of the first brick houses, and it was red brick imported from England. He had it painted white, but no matter how many coats were put on, it would always turn out pink. We went downstairs in the tavern and split a bottle of moscato and enjoyed some great company, just relaxing and talking.

After the Pink House, we checked out Lulu's chocolate bar, which was packed! We got a ginger plum tart to share, and it was delicious.

After that, we went to the city market where the night life was exploding! There were so many people in fun costumes. We found a mariachi band, which was one of my favorites that night :)

After Lulu's, of course we had to stop in one last time to Jen's and Friends. The second night I decided on a Mounds martini, and I was not disappointed! It was amazing!

Our last stop was at the Bohemian Inn, which had a rooftop bar. We even met Forrest Gump!

There was such a beautiful view of the water and a bridge, and there was even a really cool chandelier made out of oyster shells!

Our last day, we woke up and gathered our belongings, but before we headed back to Nashville, we decided to take a side trip to Tybee Island. We weren't sure where to go, so we parked on a side street and got out and a guy was getting out of his truck, so I asked him where the lighthouse was and where a good local place to eat lunch was. He gave us directions and we found ourselves at a wonderful patio on the beach. We ordered some yummy plantains with pico de gallo.

For our meals, Bernadette and Caren got fish tacos, I got a crab cake sandwich with sweet potato fries, and Samantha got a roasted veggie sandwich with red beans and rice.

After eating, we took a stroll on the beach and just soaked up the view and relaxed. It was a perfect ending to our trip.

We drove back to Nashville and spent the night, then woke up early to drive to Kentucky so Caren wasn't late for class. We said our good-byes reluctantly and headed back to Michigan. I didn't get home until 8:30pm, and after a long day of driving, I was exhausted, but it was SO worth it. I had a wonderful, relaxing, exciting, and unique trip to a place I had never been with some GREAT friends. I couldn't be happier. Now bring on the rest of the semester. Career Expo is tomorrow and I figure even though I have a job lined up, it can't hurt to network!