Living the Dream

Summer 2008 was when I had one of the most amazing jobs I could ever have, but not at all because of the work itself (though that wasn't too bad). It was the job that personally introduced me to Cirque du Soleil, which certainly was not something I was prepared for. To me, this all-human circus was only for people well-off enough to go to Vegas or some foreign country. Little did I know, it was closer than I thought. I would even be blessed to get over my lifelong fear of clowns :)

To fully understand what this job meant to me, you have to know the mindset I was in before I began my role as a quick-service food & beverage Cast Member at the La Nouba show. To start with, I wasn't terribly excited to do food service, but it was the only role that even remotely appealed to me out of the limited few they offered for the Summer Alumni Program. The most nerve-wracking part of beginning a new job in food service, though, was finding out my work location. (And for anyone who has already done the College Program, & knows a thing or two about it, the suspense of waiting to learn where you'll work is agonizing.) So as I waited for THE NEWS with my five roommates, I was praying I would be placed in one of the parks. Well, as I would soon discover, that was not to be. I was literally devastated when I was told I'd be working concessions at Cirque du Soleil's La Nouba at Downtown Disney. All I knew was that I wanted to work in a park & it suddenly felt like I never would. And even after other people told me I was "lucky" to work at the show because it was so amazing, I still wasn't sure but that didn't really matter because I did not have a choice.

Fast forwarding about a month, after a brief time at DisneyQuest while the circus was on a break, my eyes were opened to one of the most amazing experiences I would ever have. Although most of the people in my inner circle were not familiar with such a famous & unique form of entertainment, I was & it did not take long for me to become enamoured of these incredibly talented acrobats who were able to do things no human should ever be able to do. It was not at all unusual to come face to face with any one of the performers on a daily basis & there was just something pretty neat about those occurrences. (I cannot say enough about what those confrontations meant to me!) I even had the extreme privilege of forming a very small friendship with one of the "clowns"; & what a change that was from being scared of them to having them be my favorite part of the show:)

Each day of work went by faster than the one before it & all because my life was being overrun by this fantastical circus! I had never even been able to imagine this at any other point in my life & now I was actually living it. How could I have ever doubted that this was the place for me right at this time??

Looking back on my job for Disney at Cirque du Soleil, I cannot possible see how my life would have been without it & I certainly don't want to try. I now have a new passion for this world of fantasy that can't quite be explained. I am no longer afraid of clowns like I had always been;) I look at myself as crazy to have ever thought this job would not be for me. I had no problem adapting to the job I was assigned & even ended up enjoying mine better than my roommates enjoyed theirs. (And, believe me, I did not think that would EVER happen!) I have not ruled out one day going back to work there, but a large part of me simply wants to leave things the way they were & just remember what a magical experience it was...& I'm pretty sure that what I had was exactly what Walt Disney would have wanted:)

~Steph :)

http://