“You’ve got a bright future ahead of you.”

Once upon a time (5 years ago), I worked at Mount Everest at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I had wanted to take part in the Disney College Program for years, and I finally got accepted right before my last semester of college. So, like any other sane college student, I decided to hold off graduation for a semester (which turned into a year) to go work at Disney. And it turned out to be one of the most life changing decisions I ever made.

I was in college for animal science, but my job at Disney had nothing to do with working with animals. There were a lot of times where I questioned if it was even a good decision to have accepted my offer and left college for a year. I was working insane, long days in the heat, and I wasn’t really gaining any knowledge towards what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing.

I didn’t know it at the time, but the life skills I gained were going to make the entire thing worth it.

I can remember the beginning of this shift so clearly. I almost never got to work opening shifts, but I was able to either trade or pick up an opening shift on a day in November. For opening shifts, one or two people from Everest had to go to a certain point in the park and do what was called rope drop. Basically, for all the guests who showed up before the park opened, we were there to keep them company (and make sure they didn’t go into areas of the part that were off limits until park open). It was chilly for Orlando, so I decided to chat with a family to keep myself not thinking about the cold weather that I definitely wasn’t dressed for.

One family, a mom with two tween/teen daughters, caught my eye. I decided to start chatting it up with them. I learned where they were from, what attraction they were headed to first thing, how long they would be at Disney, all the basics. They asked me some similar questions, especially after noticing my university on my name badge, signifying that I was working there as part of the college program. I told them all about what I was in school for and what I wanted to do with my future, which, at the time was to become a veterinarian. To my surprise, one of the daughters had the same ambition. She started asking me for ideas on what to do to get there one day, so I told her about my history and how experiences working with animals. We ended up talking for the entire 45ish minutes until it was finally time to drop the rope and let them into the park. Before they left, I gave them a fast pass to go to Everest at some point during their visit that day (as cast members, we were encouraged to make small moments of magic for guests), hoping I would see them again. Before we parted ways, the daughter I had talked to looked at me and said, “you have a very bright future ahead of you, I can just tell.” Little did she know just how much I needed to hear that. It got me through a lot of rough moments for the remainder of my college program.

I did end up seeing that family quickly when they stopped by Everest. They said hi and thanked me profusely for taking the time to talk to them and make their trip wonderful basically before it even started. I was able to make a little bit of magic for them.

To this day, I still think about that family, especially that young girl, who was wise beyond her years. Whenever I’m really struggling, I always remember that small, parting sentence she said to me. I will never forget the impact she had on me, and I can only hope she remembers me, too. Who knows, maybe one day we will meet again. But I will always remember and be thankful for the lot of bit of magic she made for me that day.