As a student who is constantly working, going to meetings, and doing school work, any trip/ escape from reality helps. What we don’t realize about trips are that many of them can teach us some pretty important life lessons even while we are having fun and don’t actually realize it. Reflecting back on a Fall Break trip I took, I found that there are some pretty important and interesting life lessons I learned from my trip to Walt Disney World.
Planning makes perfect
Did you know that when planning a trip to Disney World you can make reservations for hotels 180 days in advance? And you can make reservations for FastPasses, attraction tickets that allow you to skip the stand-by lines, up to 60 days in advance! When planning a trip to Disney, there is a lot of organization and there are many deadlines involved. Keeping an itinerary and calendar are key to a successfully planned trip. This is also true to any Monmouth student! With deadlines, classes, meetings, etc. it can be difficult to keep up. What we can take away from a Disney vacation is that planning truly makes perfect and that goes for your daily life at Monmouth too!
Patience is key
We’ve all been there—waiting for a ride as perfect and incredible as Space Mountain, knowing that it isn’t going to be a short wait. Lines at Disney World for any attraction can get as long as two hours—sometimes even longer! You’ve got to pack your patience when going to an amusement park as magical and popular as this. Furthermore, it isn’t just the wait that you’re going to have to be patient with, it’s the people too. With the buzz of tons of different languages being spoken, the cries and yelps of little children who want this and that, and the roar of crowds in general, you’ve got to be patient and learn to keep calm in hectic situations.
This most definitely applies to life as an MU student too. We have a lot of activities and people bustling around campus all the time. Being patient with not only other people, but with ourselves is important in our success. This also applies to the dreaded group projects. We have to be patient and accepting of all different skillsets in order for the final project to be cohesive.
Mind over matter
I couldn’t tell you how many steps we took in Disney World, or how many miles it equated to, but I can tell you that it was a lot. There are always low points in your day in Disney World where everything in your body aches and hurts. You’re suffering in this pain while perhaps waiting on that two-hour line for Space Mountain and you’re wondering, “Okay, why am I doing this to my body?” But, then you look around and see a hidden Mickey Mouse and realize that it is all totally worth it. Every morning in Disney World you may wake up with a new blister on your toe or a new ache in your legs, but still, every morning you wake up energized and ready to go because this is your vacation and you love that mouse.
At MU, we get mentally drained, physically exhausted, and emotionally torn. It’s college. It happens. One day we have four papers, a presentation, and a 40 page reading due and the next day’s work could be just as taxing. But, when we put mind over matter and power through our assignments and meetings, we really get things done. You realize after you put all the time and effort into a project or essay, maybe even both, that it will be worth it in the end. Not even just the end of the class or assignment, but the end of your college career. Every tear we cry and every drop of sweat we perspire will be worth it in the end for that degree and hopefully happy life and career.
Taking a trip to Disney World, the most magical place on Earth, is a true process. It is more than just buying your plane and park tickets and heading over; you have to plan out your days, keep calm and patient throughout your days, and work through the pain because, in the end, everything is so worth it.
One last thing that taking a trip to Disney World teaches us is that we can find a little bit of magic in each day. At Disney World it could be a cast member handing you a sticker and saying “I hope you’re enjoying your day, Princess!”
At MU it could be as simple as someone holding the door open for you or telling you that you did a nice job on an assignment. Disney teaches us that every day can have a magical moment if we just stay optimistic and believe it will happen.
As the ending fireworks show, Wishes, states, “we’ll make a wish, and do as dreamers do, and all our wishes, will come true.” So, keep dreaming, Hawks! And, remember to make every action count. In the end, after all of our hard work, planning, and patience, our wishes will come true!
IMAGE COURTESY of Amanda Drennan
