So my lazy ass self never finished my audition post. Basically all 93 of us learned the dance and worked on characterizations together in one room. We practiced the dance several times and then we were sent into a hallway to line up in numerical order. We had some time to practice before they took the first group of 6 in. I was #12 so I was in the second group. I chose to work on my characterizations over the dance b/c I didn't like how they looked. I thought I did relatively well on the dace part. I am not a dancer but I went the right direction and smiled a lot. I thought I did good on the characterizations. I came out thinking positively. After a few days I began to doubt that I passed but I was ok if I didn't because I thought I would get in.

Well I ended up being rejected. I got my letter in the mail today. I am definitely sad. It never even crossed my mind that I wouldn't get in. I thought that it was a possibility that I wouldn't get character performer but I never thought I would totally flat out be rejected. But that is what happened.

I am trying to be positive about it. On the positive side I will be able to be a RA again next year. Hopefully I will get the freshmen studies/rhet & comp intern position. I won't have to worry about coming back in the fall and having to find a place to live. I can apply again in the spring and hopefully be accepted to that. And if I do get accepted I can extend my program into the summer.

Downsides: I was really looking forward to being in Florida this fall. Really just in the fall in general. It will be cooler in the fall and I think perhaps less busy. I would get to be there for Halloween, and Thanksgiving, and Christmas which would be interesting since I have only ever been to Disney in the Summer time. I guess those could also be a positive though since I will be able to be with my family.

Quite honestly I am trying to be analytical/logical about this. I got my letter right before my afternoon class so I had some time to separate myself from the sadness. I had my three second cry and now I am moving on. I still want to do the program and I know I will. I just have to work on shifting my focus from Disney back to my school plan.

Life goes on... and so will I.

-M

Audition... Part Deux?

Ahhhhh. It is now officially over. I can hardly even believe that it was this morning. It already seems like a day ago at least. I think I did pretty well. It is rather hard for me to tell though because I have nothing to compare it to. If nothing else I know I did the best that I could in the time given to me.

I figure I will talk a little bit about the structure of the audition. The sign in time was 9:30 but I decided to get there at 9. I didn't look at my watch but I actually think they might have let us in a bit earlier. Once we got in the sat us down and briefly explained how to fill out the sign in form. The recruiter then passed out the forms and some pens. After we filled out the form we lined up to sign in and get our number. I signed in and received the number 12. After we singed in we were sent to another line where we were measured. I actually found the measuring to be quite amusing. I am exactly 61 inches/5'1. I am exactly that tall to the point that others can be measured against me. Since that is one inch out of the preferred height range I had a feeling that they might measure me down. Initially the guy said "59 annnnnndd... no actually 60 and 3/4". I was amused because he really tried to measure me down 2 inches but that is a whole lot. In the end I guess it was just too much. lol

.... Hummmm so I am actually pretty pooped so I think I will finish this post tomorrow.

-M

Audition :D/:/

So I am leaving for my audition in just a little bit. I am going to get there for 9 to get in line. I am sure there will be a line.

I am not nervous yet. I keep saying little prayers asking to help me do my best. I am wavering between wanting to be confident that I will get it (positive visualization and all) and wanting to just have fun so if I don't get it I will be ok. The only hard part about that is that the longer I have waited for the audition the more I want the part. It is hard to picture doing anything else at this point but I know if I don't pass life will go on. If I am being honest the only place I really can't picture myself at next semester is school!

I will post more later this afternoon about the audition.

-M

What A Waste of My Time!

I met with Andrew the internship coordinator today. To say the meeting was a complete waste of my time is a huge understatement. I thought that "Oh this is an internship coordinator, he will be able to help me coordinate the internship with school." Wrooooong. Basically the whole entire point of the conversation was to cover the University's ass (excuse my french).

Kim Livingston basically directed me to this guy so he could rain on my parade a little more. Andrew brought me into his office sat me down and turned on the clouds to a nice steady mist. The kind that you don't even realize your a wet from until like 5 mins have passed. Which by the way, this meeting didn't even last that long.

Andrew asked what I wanted to ultimately get out of this program. I told him that my dream is to eventually work full time for Disney. I told him that I had already applied and interview and that I was just waiting to audition. That led to the topic of roles. I don't remember exactly what was said but basically he wanted to make sure I knew that I wouldn't be working in the marketing or advertising departments. I told him that I knew that and that I had really researched about the program to make sure it was something I was going to enjoy. He then said that was good and that is what I should have done.

Turns out that the reason he was making sure that I knew I could be making beds was because some students had gone down to Disney and didn't end up working in the advertising department like they expected. They hated it and so they called their parents. The parents were obviously pissed that the school had recommended this program and so they called Sr. Donna the Provost and complained to her. Sr. Donna then rained down the complaints asking why are we recommending this program if students end up housekeeping? So this is the reason that now all students that are interested in the program must be sat down to have it explained to them that they will not necessarily be doing anything related to their major.

** Sassy Pants Warning**

All I can say is NO SHIT SHERLOCK! Those students who complained must have been morons! How can you make it through the website, presentation, and interview without realizing what exactly each role entails? And how can you think you will be working in the advertising or marketing department when THERE IS NO ROLE LISTED FOR THAT! Did you sleep through everything it took to get down there? If that is the answer then they didn't deserve to have a spot in the CP, in my opinion. Some other person probably would have enjoyed it more and deserved it more since they ACTUALLY PAID ATTENTION!

When I was in this meeting I thought "Okay I understand they are covering their own asses. I am okay with that, I get it." I kept expecting that after this little preliminary conversation was over that he would actually start being helpful. But then he stood up and I realized that the little rain storm was the whole entire point of the meeting. In the time it took me to walk out the building (1 min tops) I worked myself into a great big ball of frustration and sass.

I don't fault the school. This world is filled with stupid people, especially young people, who will ignore, ignore, ignore- till the truth smacks them in the face. I am not one of these people. My mama didn't raise no fool. (sassy head jiggle included) I did my research and unlike others I made very sure that I only chose roles that I was completely willing to fulfill. If Disney only has a place for me in Quick Service Food and Beverage or Housekeeping, I am quite willing to turn that position down. I know myself and I know that I would be unhappy in that position. I can always wait until the next semester and apply again to get a position that I could be happy with.

Not that that is likely to happen. :D I am quite confident that I will be a Walt Disney World character performer this coming fall.

Also in case anyone is keeping track I am now up to 5 degrees of sucks-for-you-we-love-bureaucracy run around. Back to Kim to talk about classes and such. I also plan on talking to Stephanie Martinez the professor whom I plan to take my internship class with. I have hopes that she might be able to shed some light onto what I have to do within the internship class in relation to my internship with Disney. EX: Do I need to get a "contact" signed? If so by whom? and by when?

Wish me luck as I continue my large bass-ackward journey towards coordinating school with Disney.

-M

Long Time No Update

So it has been a while since I have posted anything. Or at least it feels that way. I think the last post included a tidbit about getting the run around from St. Eds but I will elaborate.

Last fall when I first decided that I really wanted to apply for the program, I spoke to my adviser about the who I might need to talk to about having classes I take at Disney transfer back to St. Eds. He told me that I should talk to the registrar. I filed that away in my memory and when the time came to start looking into transferring classes again I pulled that bit of info out of my mental storage unit. While I absolutely love my adviser, he obviously did not really know what he was talking about. I was smart and called the Registrar before I walked all the way to their office. Whoever I spoke to decided that I needed to talk to someone in the Undergraduate Admissions Office. Let me just say that the first thing I thought was "I reaaaaallly don't think that is who I need to be talking to" but I let them transfer me anyway. I then talked to the receptionist in the Undergrad Admissions office. After a very long explanation in which I had to restate a few times that I was a current St. Ed's student, the receptionist told me that I should talk to the admissions counselor in charge of transfers, Tracy Canales.

So even though I was pretty much positive that wasn't who I needed to talk to, the next day I walked to the main building to talk to this lady. Turns out I was right, she wasn't who I needed to talk to. One point for Marion! woo! She told me I should talk to the Dean of my school (Humanities), Kim Livingston. Tracy was quite helpful and looked up all of the info I would need to contact Kim. As soon as I got out of Tracy's office I called Kim but she was not in her office. I left a message explaining what I wanted to know and asked her to call me back when she got a chance.

I think she called me back either the next day or 2 days later. She asked me how I found out about the program and then told me that they (the humanities office?) no longer recommend the program. Their reason for this is that students can end up doing things that have no relation to their major. She specifically mentioned making beds. She then said that I should talk to Andrew Harper who is the Internship Coordinator in the Career Planning office. She also said that as long as I can provide a course description or a syllabus then she is the one that will be able to let me know if credits will transfer.

Basically I got run around in a HUGE circle only to have someone rain on my Disney parade. My thought on the whole "tasks that don't relate to your major thing" is that I am a communication major and more specifically a advertising and public relations specialization. The all of roles I checked off have direct guest interaction. In any of these roles I will be the face of Disney to guest who interact with me. That is the definition of Public Relations. So Poo POO on that excuse!

I finally got around to scheduling an appointment with Andrew. I have absolutely no ideas why I am talking to him and what I will be talking to him about. However I think he might be able to help me coordinate the school/program aspect. Perhaps he will even be able to put me in touch with CP Alumni that went to St. Eds and were Comm majors.

I also ended up going to the live presentation at UT last Friday but since I feel like this post is super long I will talk about that in my next post.

I hope everyone has a super terrific day!!

-M