Open your mind to Disney May11 '03

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom. Will be thinking of you today.

It’s been a great couple of days, and it’s a shame I have to come home tomorrow morning, but all good things must end. Our flight is at 11 AM EST, so we’ll be leaving for the airport about 8 AM. I should be home by 1 PM EST, or noon Chicago time.

It’s truly great down here. It’s really another world. My reality of life, and the hustle and bustle is stranded on the outside of this world, and is not invited in. I’ll get back to it soon enough. It will always be there waiting.

I was here in Orlando with my family about.... I want to say 6 years ago, but I’m not sure. I think I was about 17. So about 6 or 7 years ago. We stayed more into downtown Orlando, than so close to Disney, as we are now. Well, not we as my family, we as in Shell and I. Staying so close to Disney kind of changes the way you percieve things. The magic and excitement sort of seeps into your mind. Like I said, we’re in a different world down here. Kind of like our own bubble.

Everybody and everything is Disney. The road signs, the daily food specials, the people – it’s all Disney. Everyone here lives on a Disney cloud. There’s no 9 to 5, or Saddam Hussein, or rush hour traffic, or anything else equated with boring reality. It’s really kind of nice. A world within a world.

Nicole, Michelle’s sister, has been ever so gracious to show us around these last couple of days. She works for Disney entertainment. She got us into the parks for incredibly low fees, if not free. And not to mention hospitality. We’ve been staying at her apartment. It is also her 21st birthday weekend. We’ve went out every night here, and it’s been a great time.

There’s just such a buzz down here. Such a wonderful sense of anticipation. We’re at the largest and greatest entertainment parks in the world. We’re at the center of such an amazing accomplishment of human ingenuity. Disney is one of the greatest and probably most successful corporations ever. It’s amazing to look around at the parks and everywhere else, and think to myself, Humans, just like me, built all this. We came up with all this – everything from the Tower of Terror to Aladdin on top of his cloud. Everything was thought out in someone’s head. It’s truly something words can’t describe.

I can’t begin to describe the wonderful sense of peace and well–being I get from seeing the magic of the parades and fireworks, and characters – it is all such a dream – for all ages, not just kids. That someone put all this together, and it flows so cohesively, is remarkable.

You have to be willing to open your mind and let it stretch out to the horizon. If you can do that, you will feel like a kid forever – whenever you come here. That was the goal, I guess, from Disney – in the first place. To always make you remember what it’s like to be a kid.

And what’s so great about meeting Nicole, Michelle’s sister, was that I get to see the inside of it all – the ordinary people, just like you and me, that play these roles at Disney World. I can see there unity, and friendships, and their sense of love for such an unthinkable dream job. They are all like a family. From the parades, to the mascots – everyone is family. They go through the ups and downs together. They give kids memories for the rest of their lives.

It’s a no–fly zone too, overhead here on the Disney grounds. Not a plane to be heard this whole trip. I don’t miss it. It’s so peaceful.

I could type for hours about what it’s like down here. I’m sure most of you have visited before, so you know a little of what I’m talking about. But I’ve seen another perspective.

Categories: Locations , Ponderings , Recollections

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