*ALL VIEWS ARE MY OWN AND NOT OF THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY, CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY OR YUMMY JOBS*
Hey there, pals!
Last time I left you, I was in a horrible place. I had just moved into a temporary apartment within my housing complex after my previous roommates consistently sought to emotionally harm me.
During my stay in my temporary accommodation, a couple of new girls had moved in with me, as they were dealing with a massive leak in their apartment. While I was in my temporary accommodation, I handed in my key to the previous apartment I was living at because I did not want to return. Though my self-esteem was low, my happiness was much better. About a week after my initial meeting with the management team at my housing complex, I had another meeting. This one was a check up to see how I was doing and whether I would like to move back into my old apartment or move into a completely new permanent apartment. At this point, I had my heart set on moving apartments altogether.
After my second meeting, I got a phone call to say that I had been allocated a new permanent apartment at the same housing complex. This time, I knew exactly what I was doing with moving all my belongings and I was able to move all my stuff in four runs, as well as completely organising all of my food items, clothes and decorated my half of the bedroom and getting to know my brand new roommates.
I have already mentioned this in my last blog post, but I am so going to mention it again. I will forever be grateful to my leaders at fairy school for their kindness in allowing me to take a break from my fairy school studies and register for my classes if I felt up to it. When I arrived at fairy school after shifting my belongings for the second time, the amount of love from my fairy classmates was still the same.
With my mind turning towards being in fairy school for nine days straight, I felt incredibly privileged that I was able to use my Fairy Godmother training lessons for three separate families:
The first was a shy child (Princess) who was anxious and unsure about doing the transformation. I was practising my accounting classes when the grandmother (Queen) came up to me. As I was totalling up the exchange of gold, the other Fairy Godmother in Training (FGIT) doing accounting classes with me tried to talk to the princess to reassure her that everything was going to be okay. However, this did not seem to reassure the Princess. In an attempt to make the Princess feel better, I went over to the Princess, bent down to her level and spoke softly. From this approach, I discovered the Princess was nervous about the hair salon, where my pampering classes take place, and not knowing which hairstyle to pick. So, whilst the Queen was exchanging some gold with the other FGIT, I lead the Princess and the Mother to have a sneak peek at the salon. Then, the Princess started talking to her Mother about hairstyles, as she wasn't sure whether she wanted an Enchanted bun or Royal Braid. In my head, I was like 'okay, we're making progress in reassuring this Princess.' To distract the Princess even more, I decided to play a game with her and test her knowledge of the Disney princesses with the banners that are decorated in the fairy-tale hallway at fairy school. She got every single one correct and was full of energy that she was able to complete her Princess transformation! The other FGIT had told one of my leaders about this special interaction for my Fairy Godmother training, and I had told this was how real magic was made!
The second was a patient Princess who was dressed up as Princess Belle. It was obvious that the other FGITs not doing accounting classes did not want to practice their Fairy Godmother training on a young princess. So, the Princess and I did a princess twirl and read a storybook together. The Mother (Queen) videotaped a snippet of the storytime I was having with her Princess.
This last Princess I interacted with was very excited when she found out that both her and I had a lot of things in common! In fact, she was so excited that she did not stop talking about me to the FGIT who was in their pampering class!
These special moments during my Fairy Godmother training may not sound much, but they uplifted me so much at a time that I really needed it too. In the words of the Fairy Godmother herself:
That brings me to say: if you are living in a toxic shared accommodation environment right now, Disney program or not, you WILL get through this. The saying what does not kill you makes you stronger sounds so cliché, but it's so true. You are strong, you got this!
Thank you so much for reading my post this week and I hope you all have a magical day!
-Hannah
DISCLAIMER: this blog is my personal experience on the Disney Academic Exchange Program (DAEP) 2019-2020 and may not reflect everyone’s experience. Other programs and future participants on the DAEP may have slight adjustments to their programs that may not be featured in any of my blog posts. That being said, if you do leave any questions, I will try to answer them as best as I possibly can 😊
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