April 17, 2012. 11:21 a.m.

I’m still miserable. My dad had asked me to cut the grass that morning, so I pulled the mower out and started to go to town. I was cutting the grass for about 10 minutes before I realized I hated the music I was listening to. I grab the phone out of my pocket to see an email on my lock screen.

“Disney College Program: Congratulations”

Alright, this is bullshit, where’s Ashton Kutcher? I hate being Punk’D. After about a thousand double takes, holy shit, this thing is real. I basically said fuck the lawnmower and let go completely to frantically open the email thinking it had to be some kind of mistake.

That was holy shit moment number two.

Well, I’ll be damned, I did it. I actually did it. I was going to work for Walt Disney World. I remember jumping around in my front yard doing some serious Tiger Wood style fist pumps while practically screaming at the top of my lungs in excitement. I had to tell somebody, so I called the first person I knew would be the most proud of me, my sister. Like I said before, Disney was the one thing we shared, and will share to the end of time. This was big for us. After telling my sister, I would eventually tell the rest of the family, and sure enough, it felt like I had did something big.

Like I said before, five years ago wasn’t the easiest time for me. I wasn’t happy with a lot going on around me. I had a very supportive girlfriend at the time that really helped carry me through a lot of the heavy times, but even then, It wasn’t enough to pull me out of my personal funks. I was so frustrated with everything I was doing to that point in my life, that it honestly felt like I’d never amount to anything. Looking back now, I was WHINY as fuck. Pull it together Woj, you were 18 years old, just chill out man. Unfortunately 24 year old Woj wasn’t there to bully around 18 year old Woj at the time, but luckily this Disney thing broke that funk.

Holy shit moment number three.

I felt like I had accomplished something. I got the acceptance letter April 17 and my arrival date for the program was May 15, 2012. Holy shit. I had less than a month to basically pack up my shit and move to a different state. I had to figure shit out with school to see how I was going to get credit for this thing, put my two weeks in at my job, and try to squeeze as many moments in with friends and family as I could in less than a month before I was gone for nearly a year. It was brutal. Now, because I was chosen so late in the application process as well, I also never got a chance to try and find roommates on Facebook. I was going down to live with random strangers in a different state. Terrific. I was petrified.

Those last few weeks in Buffalo went by faster than I could have ever imagined, but the time was here. I was ready to get on a plane from Buffalo as just a normal dude, and get off the plane in Orlando as Disney’s newest cast member. I felt like a damn celebrity in my brain.

I was hired as a cast member in Quick-Service Food & Beverage, but I didn’t even care where they put me to be honest, I was just happy to be there. Now, when you get hired, they tell you what role you’ll be working in, but they don’t tell you where exactly you’ll be working. You don’t find out that information until your arrival date. You arrive really early in the morning to stand in a mile-long line with other eager people ready to find out where they are living, who they are living with, and where in the most magical place on Earth they’ll be working.

After about 45 minutes of waiting, it’s my finally my turn. I’m playing over a thousand different scenarios in my head of where I could possibly be working, and I just kept saying the same thing in my head over and over again. “Please not Cosmic-Ray’s, Please not Cosmic-Ray’s.” The lady hands me my little booklet and tells me “Congratulations Bryan, you’ll be Outdoor Foods at the Magic Kingdom.”

Holy shit moment number four.

I was going to be working at the Magic Kingdom, and not just one restaurant or area in the Magic Kingdom, literally the entire park. I also met all of my roommates that day, two of which I hit it off with very well, and still keep in touch with to this day. The rest of them, to be honest, just never stuck. It’s unrealistic to think you can just throw six guys together and they’ll be best friends or all hit it off. We didn’t, and that’s okay.