Ghosts of Disney Past- 8th Grade Trip

Done with my undergraduate year at Indiana University.  That feels really weird.  High school seemed to go on and on forever and ever, but college evaporated into thin air in a snap.  It felt really nice though to have a legitimate answer when someone would ask me "What are you doing after college?"  I would answer, with a smile on my face, "I'm going to Disney World!"  That probably got old fast.  So to prove that I really graduated...

Unfortunately, I still have not received either of my diplomas yet, but here is me and my cousin outside of the great Assembly Hall after commencement.  So, now I am trying to be productive... packing and unpacking, cleaning, plotting (I mean planning), watching Daily Show and Colbert Report, etc.  I have a hotel and a plane ticket.  Now I am going to reminisce some more.
Middle School was the closest to hell I have ever been, but there was one nice, shiny light at the end of the tunnel:  Disney World and Universal Studios.  Marching band gave me my first trip without parents (it would give me several other opportunities like this).  It was scary and frightening, but really it was just awesome.  Below are some really bad quality pictures.  They were taken with a disposable camera and then photographed with an ipod touch... yeah, they are bad, but I like them.

Outside Magic Kingdom (I am the blurry person, second on the left)

Hollywood Studios phone box with friends

He was totally going to jump us as we sailed by.  Don't be fooled by their happy song!

...there was a little girl...

Why do we have to grow up? I know more adults who have the children's approach to life. They're people who don't give a hang what the Joneses do. You see them at Disneyland every time you go there. They are not afraid to be delighted with simple pleasures, and they have a degree of contentment with what life has brought - sometimes it isn't much, either.

-Walt Disney

So this is a story about a little girl who loved Disney.  Day and night she would watch the movies and sing the songs, play with the dolls and color the pictures.  It was a vicious cycle with which her parents had to deal.  One day that little girl did something absolutely horrible... she grew up!  The little girl became a not-so-little girl and then a big girl and then a big, big girl.  She still watched Disney movies, but now she liked other things like science fiction and ghost stories.  The big, big girl went to college and became interested in forensic anthropology and medical anthropology and archaeology and lots of things.  The big, big girl became interested in so many things that she didn't know what she was going to do when she left school.  "I am going to graduate school," the big, big girl would answer when anyone asked what her plans were, but in truth she did not really know much about what she would do at graduate school.  "I am going to take a year off," the big, big girl began saying when people would ask her about her plans.  So then the problem came to light, what would the big, big girl do during that year?  That big, big girl decided to think what that little girl would do and she found a solution.

In case it wasn't not terribly clear, I am that "girl".  I was accepted into the Disney College Program as a character attendant for the Fall Advantage 2011 season.  Basically, I am going to be away from my family and friends for seven months, working in Disney World.  Not that everyone will miss me, but I made a blog to post pictures and videos to my family and friends.  If they are really feeling up to it, they can read my rambles as well.  I also wanted to create a scrapbook that I can look back on after these seven months are over and since I am rubbish at actually scrapbooking, a blog seemed like the next logical option.

My first day is May 23, 2011.  Until then I have three final papers, two presentations, an eportfolio, three short responses, and grading/proctoring a test standing in the way of me and Disney, then it will be so long cornandsoyfields and hello Cinderella's castle! 

Disney Countdown:  28 days