So it was recently the 6 year anniversary of when I left behind my friends, family and home I had known all my life and as a pretty naïve 19 year old jetted off to Florida U.S.A to become a member of the Walt Disney World Cast. So I don't think I can cover everything about my time there, after all it was a whole year of my life, so if you guys want more posts about this then let me know!

 

So I've decided this post is going to focus on what I learnt in those first few weeks about living away from everything I'd ever known.

 

They speak English it will be pretty much be the same right?

So as I said before I was pretty naïve, I'd been to America on holiday a few times in my life before I made the move plus I'd seen The OC so I was pretty much an American life expert right? WRONG! No matter what country you move to whether they speak the same language or not, it's always going to be a major adjustment and a bit of a culture shock. I wish I'd been more prepared for this, slowly finding out I was along way from home was a pretty scary experience, even the bread tastes different! I have memories of standing in the supermarket reading every brand of bread labels to find the one with lowest amount of sugar so it would taste more like home! I found it really strange that some people didn't understand what I was saying, how loud and confident everyone seemed and even the money was confusing to me it took some getting used to but I soon adapted and changed the way I said Tomato which made ordering a pizza a lot easier. I learnt from all this though and when I made the move to Australia it was a much easier transition.

 

New Family

Moving to a country where you know absolutely no one can be extremely daunting, me being me I hadn't even really thought about how weird this was. Luckily for me at Disney a group of all started at the same time, its strange how quickly you bond with people in this situation. By the end of the first week that group had become my family, we were so close to look at us from the outside you would have thought we'd known each other for years not a week. It's actually really comforting to think about how much as humans we adapt and learn quickly to create a support group around ourselves.

 

In those first moments, don't cry

So when I stepped off the plane and had to find my way on my own for the first time was scary, only to be made scarier by being pulled aside because they didn't recognise my visa. I was then put in a scary room with a guy who looked like Captain America luckily it was all fine and I got through, I was strong and just kept thinking don't cry, don't cry. After this ordeal was over I went to collect my bag...ah another issue this suitcase was the size of me, getting it off the belt was a mission, I tried, struggled, yelped and no one came to my aid, I was going to have to brave and ask someone...no one was around...ah this was embarrassing I was going to have to yell at someone from a far. Yeah that happened then I had to try and find the taxi service I needed another mission and probably long and boring story but the key thing is I didn't cry. I know that's a weird thing to be proud of, but in that moment as a scared 19 year old all I wanted was my Mum but I was brave and got through it. So in those scary first moments be strong and it will give you a sense that you can handle anything.

 

I could go on and on I might make my move to America and on going thing and focus on different aspects such as making friends, meeting my boyfriend, what it's like to work for Disney etc. Let me know if this is something you're interested in.