What did you do when you got home?

Discussion in 'Alumni Discussion' started by Ona, May 16, 2005.

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What did you do when you got home?

  1. Took a while, then got your dream job.

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  2. Took a while, then got a pants job.

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  3. Jumped straight into your dream job.

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  4. Jumped straight into a pants job.

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  5. Went to uni.

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  6. Absolutely nothing.

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  7. Still not sure what's going on.

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  8. Married an American an still livin' the dream. :)

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  1. Ona

    Ona Member

    Just curious as to what most folks do when they get back to "the real world".

    Ona x
     
  2. *Laura*

    *Laura* New Member

    well as you know Ona, i had a job interview 2 days after coming home and a week after that started in what i thought was a dream job but turned out to be a pants job at a travel agency, so i quit and went back to Marks and Spencer for christmas (which i said i would never do cos i used to work for them and wen i left there before disney i said id never go back but i did and for 5 months!!) but it was ok cos they treated me good, and now im doing something that imhappy doing, so really i shoulda just come home and bummed around until march....

    lol just kiddin, u gotta make mistakes to learn wats right for u, even if they are expensive or tedious mistakes!!
     
  3. Dougslar

    Dougslar New Member

    Came home, bummed around for a while, went back to my job at Debenhams (which I swore I never would!), then got a dream job on the Cruise Line!!!!

    But then came home from that and now in pants job! But hey that's life! Got my Disney memories to keep me going!!!

    Laura.
     
  4. *Laura*

    *Laura* New Member

    i did consider doing disney cruise job (even though i hate ships!) but then i figured i was only gonna do that cos i couldny find anything else to do and man the upheaval really sucked wen i got back to uk, its totally disorientating!! lol

    i would consider going and doing another year in wdw but only if i got to work somewhere cool like CDS or as a character (but only character in the winter months!)

    but gonna do university first and get qualified and then who knows?? i may get over my phobia of ships and come join u all on the happiest cruise ship that ever sailed........
     
  5. Dougslar

    Dougslar New Member

    I only did the cruise really cos I couldn't be bothered to look for a proper job here but hey it turned out to be a good experience and good year!

    I would go back to Disney in a flash if I could get a visa! But that's a minefield!!!! My boyfriend from the ship is out there just now so I'm trying any way to get back!!!

    I did the Uni thing before Disney so I had nothing to come back here for. It was so hard to drag myself back after such a fantastic year out there! Thought about going back to Uni but I don't know if I could handle all that studying! Plus it's expensive now too to study!!!
     
  6. *Laura*

    *Laura* New Member

    i dont doubt that its a fantastic year, if i werent afraid of ships id swim at the chance lol

    yeh uni is expensive, fortunately i get bursary and fees paid and stuff for the one im gonna do, but yeh id rather be in disney that in uk studying at uni!! :-[

    hope u get to go back out there laura!!! i really need to take a vacation out there
    yep it really is the memories that keep us all going
     
  7. SarahJane

    SarahJane New Member

    Well, I got home, and then took a week off to see my family and catch up. Then I hopped in a car with my two best friends, and we did a two week road trip from Ottawa to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas.

    When I got back, I did a few jobs here and there before I finally got a job doing what I went to college for...all of this was by choice.
     
  8. soleil plage

    soleil plage Guest

    thats one of the problems with the IP -  it's a beautiful in sight to a fantasy world that you can't live in forever -  and when you leave it's such a shock... i've had 2 years of seasonal work  (going from pants job to good job...pants job to good job..) because i didn't know what I wanted to do when I came home!! - Disney didn't let me think that far ahead!.

    realising your friends (who were on the next room/apartment) now live all over the country/world seems cool to people who have never experienced the Program.... but when you only get to see them once a year - it sucks :(  

    miss Dougslar! - i thought about going back to uni - but can't afford it either! - Catch 22, you need to work F/T to afford to study but if you work F/T you'll struggle to find the time to do your Uni work!!!
     
  9. Anika

    Anika New Member

    What about your very close friends from your 'former' life? Were you changed when you came back? Or did you think they were different? Was it hard for you to fit in again?
     
  10. Dougslar

    Dougslar New Member

    Wish I was in the category "married an American and still living the dream"!!! Ha ha!

    Funny story, I had an American boyfriend for two years while I was at Uni! Finished with him just before I started at Disney!!! Could have been married and divorced by now with a green card in hand!!!!

    Ahhhh...........hindsight is a wonderful thing!!!
     
  11. flavour

    flavour New Member

    yeah! me too! haha! still looking around...you never know!!

    well, when i came back i did an internship in a hospital and then went straight on to uni, and i'm still there and will be for some more time!! :(

    later! flavour xoxo
     
  12. emma

    emma New Member

    i know i cant really answer this till next year...but wen i return sep 1st 2006 i have a place in the university of liverpool!
     
  13. SarahJane

    SarahJane New Member

    I think I changed a lot...and they changed too, but probably not as much as I did. It was hard to readjust and get back into the swing of things, but really, it's that year away that makes you find out who your REAL friends are!
     
  14. PGGurl

    PGGurl New Member

     
  15. Anika

    Anika New Member

    Yeah, I already talked about that with my best friend...how I´m missing a year of her life and she missing a part of mine...I hope we´ll manage to keep up our friendship.
    I´m sure that Disney is a unique experience which will have a great impact on me. I´ll see how things turn out to be. :)
     
  16. *Laura*

    *Laura* New Member

    sometimes the year in disney does really put a strain on friendships, even the best of friendships........

    because this year is like no other and can really change you as an individual, it can change your direction in life and allows you to really see what is important and what isnt....

    unfortunately because you are propelled into a new view on things sometimes you leave behind your friends from home and when you arrive home it just isnt the same,

    i am still friends with most of the people that i was when i went out to disney, however, it really isnt the same, we are not as close.

    the best advice for your year there? make the most of those people that you get to know there and really value your new friendships that you make because they are going to mean a lot to you on arrival home to your homeland......... i see a lot of the people i met in disney, we have reunions (mostly made up of uk cast members) and i feel they are like long lost friends that i just didnt get to meet until i went to disney.........

    and try to write letters home occasionally and do some emails, but you will find it hard to be in permanent correspondence with people at home because there is little time to do everything in orlando!!!
     
  17. flavour

    flavour New Member

    i never thought that would happen when i went to disney...i thought it would be more or less the same when i come back...well, it wasn't at all! i don't have any contact to most of my 'old' friends anymore, some of them i still see from time to time, but that's it...my best friend now is a girl i met at disney and it actually feels like we're sisters...it's just like laura said: it's like long lost friends you just didn't meet before!
    and when i go to reunions or meet up with people from disney it usually doesn't seem like we haven't seen each other for a year or more sometimes but actually as if it was only last week...
     
  18. Jamie

    Jamie New Member

    I just got me a job....a proper job:)

    as of June 5th i'm an assistant manager of the new chiquito's restaurant in Swansea!! yay me!!
     
  19. Isolda

    Isolda New Member

    Well... I got home and everything sucks!

    I dont get along with my old friends anymore, I go out with them and spend some time as before, like having coffee together, and going to the movies.

    But, I dont enjoy as I did before. It's like I move on by my way and they moved on...or not... everything here stayed exactly the same. It was a shock for me to see that nothing actually changed.

    It's horrible that you can't adapt anymore to your life at home, I know people they were so happy to come back and they moved on as nothing ever happen or they never left. But there are more persons who are as me... and it's really frustrating, because sometimes you feel it's the end of your social life...hahaha...But gets better when you go to Disney Reunions at home....

    And also, I had my norwegian boyfriend at Disney, and basically we are still together but it's expensive to travel... We talk on the phone Daily, Norway - Mexico... and It has been a lit expensive for both, but we are working on that. So I think about him everyday every moment. For example, my birthday was so sad, because I just wanted him to be with me and he called me a lot of times during the day, but wasnt the same.

    And because of all this, and the need of money to travel and see him. I decided to leave again, I cant be here anymore...I feel there's nothing here for me.... weird. So , I got a contract at Royal Caribbean and I'm leaving soon....

    Now, I'm happier that what I was since I came back :)

    Looking forward to leave and meet more people from all around the world and talk in different languages! Maybe it's not gonna be the Commons or Disney. But I'm gonna be doing what I like and saving money!!!

    HURRAY!!

    So, everyone, have a magical day!
     
  20. Ona

    Ona Member

    Wow! It's been so intersting reading how everyone has coped with the big transition of being dropped back into their old lives.

    For myself, I'd be lying if I said it has been easy.

    I really think this has more to do with where you and your friends are in your lives, perhaps also on your ages. For me, I agree, things were def. not the same when I came home, but I feel that would have happened whether I'd been away or not. My friends and I have all finished uni, some are gettin married, buying houses, getting grown up jobs and it was very difficult for me to come back to that after a year of life at the commons i.e. no responsibilities what-so-ever. So I did what I thought was the right thing and went back to uni. to become a teacher. A nice grown-up sensible thing to do.

    Unfortunately, I've realised that I'm so not ready for that yet. The WDWIP really opened up eyes to the world and I'm not ready to close them. I finish my course in less than a month and then the plan is to get a job (any job) and make some money and then hopefully join the DCL.

    I need to work for Disney, and even more importantly, I need to feel like I'm actually living again. Is it just me or has anyone else felt that since they've come home that they seem to have just stopped feeling so alive?

    From the outside it appears things are going really well. Great apartment, good steady job for next year. But I don't want either. I just want the magic back. And I'm determined to get it.

    So hopefully, this time next year I'll be able to say that it took a while, but I got my dream job. :)

    Ona x
     

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