As anyone who knows us should know, Disneyland is a huge part of our story. When I met Cory I was a college freshman, working on my degree in dance education, and mostly failing out of college. My roommate and best friend has started dating an awesome guy (they're now married), and he set me up with his co-worker. One afternoon over Thanksgiving break, I received a text from an unknown number. All this message said was "Hey, this is Cody's friend Cory. Do you know how much a polar bear weighs?" Being the smart alack I am, I of course responded with a perfectly googled measurement of what a polar bears weighs in both pounds and kilograms. Turns out all he wanted to say was, "enough to break the ice!"
We went on our first date the next evening. If was a night of Kermit the Frog impressions, bonding over our same love of music, our love of Disney and Marvel Comics, and a whole lot of giggling on my part. We had gone to Temple Square to look at the lights, and were so caught up in everything, he even forgot to feed me dinner. We ended up staying up till 1am, just talking on the couch in my parents basement. He scandalously kissed me at the end of our first date, and the rest is history.
Everything was near perfect. He was kind, hilarious, and had a sweet car. (Honda Elements, always a lady killer.) There was only one little problem. The summer prior my older brother and his wife had taken me to Disneyland. I fell in love. It was the costumes, the music, the food, and the magic. I felt at home. I spent my entire first semester in college focused on doing well enough to get into The Disney College Program. Lucky for me, I was working for Radio Disney at the time as a dancer doing live events and promotions. It gave me a good reference, and less than a month before meeting Cory I had been accepted into the program. I was overjoyed, excited, yet still heartbroken to leave this awesome guy that I had fallen in love with in such a short time. We had just over a month before I packed up my Chevy Aveo with my sick collection of pop-punk CD's and headed to Anaheim. We spend that month practically inseparable, but the time still came to leave.
My college program experience was a unique one. As I look back on it now, it was some of the best times of my life. However, if you were to have met me then, you might have thought I hated everything about it. The hours were long, it was my first time living more than an hour away from where I grew up, my roommate could only fall asleep while listing to the score or book on tape for Lord of the Rings, and I was incredibly sick. (I was diagnosed with Celiac disease during my program, which is why it was cut short.) Despite all of that, it was still an amazing experience. I made awesome friends, went to Disneyland almost every day, and ate too many Churro's to count. If you asked me today if I'd do it all over again, I would automatically give you a big yes!  |
| Working at World of Disney meant awesome tapestry vest, and Deny's trips at 3am after the park was asleep for the night. |
One of the best parts of working for a Disney park, is the free sign ins for your friends and family. You're essentially given a certain number of free park tickets every year. Because of this, Cory was able to come and visit a few times. Despite us both being huge Disney fans before we ever met, I think our relationship starting with Disney definitely helped add to the craziness. So if you're reading this and think, "these people are insane, why are all their pictures from Disneyland?" You can thank a couple of nerdy college kids, and the Disney College Program.
Brace yourself, another Disneyland post is coming.
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