Well, it’s official–I’m no longer an employee of The Walt Disney Company.
It’s actually been official for a while now. My program ended at the beginning of June, and then I guess I decided I needed a break from blogging.
But I’m back!
I have so much to say about my program–so much, in fact, that I have a whole post planned about my full experience on the Disney College Program. I’ll be exposing everything.
Just kidding.
In reality, I just have so much to say about my time at Disney (all good things, all good things) that it’s going to have to get its own post. So, look forward to that–if I ever have enough motivation to write it.
So today, I’ve decided to just do a little life update. Since starting this blog, I’ve realized that I enjoy writing my life updates much better than putting together Instagram photodumps. This may have something to do with the fact that I never take pictures…
I guess we’ll start with May/June: the end of my program.
During the last week of May, my family came down to help me move out of my apartment.
That’s right: I’m no longer a resident of Flamingo Crossings Village.
When I met up with the rest of my family, one of the first things I realized was that despite being the oldest sister, I am now the 4th tallest (out of five).
During my time as a cast member, I earned a bunch of complimentary Disney tickets, so my family stayed an extra week in Orlando and we got to have a 10-day family vacation. We did four days at Disney and five days at Universal. (I didn’t have tickets to Universal; we just like long vacations.)
We also had one “rest” day in the middle, except that while my family was resting, I was working my last shift.
Anyway, we had a lovely vacation. We started with Disney and did one day in each park. Then, for our Universal days, we did two days at Epic, two days at Islands of Adventure, and one day at Universal Studios.
You could say it was the Most Magical and Universally Epic trip on Earth. (I think I got all the parks in there…)
We got lots of pictures, too. I will put some below.
“But wait,” you say, “I thought you said you never take pictures!”
And to that I respond: Yes, you are correct. These are all either taken by Photopass or my mom😂
These may not be the best pictures from our trip; we have just shy of 500 pictures in our Google Photos album, and I am not about to go sorting through all that. So these are just some fun ones I found. And they are also in random order.
Anyway, after four Disney days, one last shift at Goofy’s, and then five Universal days…we missed our morning flight back to Colorado.
If there’s one place the “Disney Magic” doesn’t exist it’s the Orlando International Airport.
Luckily, we were able to get on another flight later in the day. But it was touch-and-go for a while there.
So, after like three flights (we had two transfers) we arrived in Colorado Springs. As soon as we walked off the plane, I immediately realized I couldn’t breathe.
6,000 feet is a lot after you’ve gotten used to living at sea level.
Anyway, after a couple weeks of rest, I started a new job:
For the past two months, I’ve been working as a Starbucks barista, and I love it. Which is surprising, because I used to be pretty coffee-averse. Those who know me know I couldn’t handle any amount of caffeine.
But, over the last few weeks, I’ve built up my tolerance, and now I drink coffee all the time, lol. Making drinks is so much fun, and I get a lot of fulfillment from it, too. I love connecting with the customers and getting to know all the regulars!
A few days ago, someone came into the shop and said, “Oh, I’m glad you’re here; you make good drinks!”
There have been some crazy days (*cough cough* unicorn frap *cough cough*) but it’s all been mostly fun. And I will say it is also really nice to work at a job where I can pull out my phone for one second and not worry about getting fired lol.
And where I can take a sick day and not get a “point.”
And where I can use the same bathrooms as the customers.
(Also–It took me like three weeks before I started saying “customers” instead of “guests” lol.)
One other fun thing that has come from this job is that I bought my own espresso machine!
I spent many hours in the “figuring stuff out” phase, which may or may not have included a can of coffee grounds exploding on the counter. Anyway, I’m still not perfect at it, but I did successfully make one iced salted caramel latte!
I know for sure there’s other things that I could give updates about, but if I wrote it all now I would have nothing to write about for the next few weeks! And I really want to start blogging regularly again lol.
But I can’t leave off without first showing the best part of the summer: being reunited with my cats.
If there’s one thing I do take pictures of, it’s the cats.
Ok, now I can finish this post.
I’m looking forward to a lot of things: the beginning of fall (and the fall Starbucks menu!), the holiday season, getting to celebrate my birthday at home for the first time in like four years…
And hopefully continuing to blog through it all!
If you’ve read this far, thank you! I really do appreciate my blog readers 😊 I hope to get back to my regular schedule of Blog Sundays, so stay tuned! And subscribe, if the ramblings of a 22-year-old English-major-turned-barista sounds like something you’d enjoy.
See you next week!
P.S. One more update:
My family and I all got subscriptions to the New York Times Games app.
My favorite game is the Spelling Bee.
It definitely doesn’t ragebait me at all.
