So this will be my first non-work related post but today was just too perfect. It was the biggest reminder of why I do what I do so I can't help but share with you guys. 

Today I got to take some friends of my family to Magic Kingdom. To fully understand the story, let me lay out the family dynamics:

Mrs Maria (married to Kevin, Rhys's mom)

Kevin (Rhys's step-dad)

Rhys (friends with one of my brothers, age 20)

Paul (Maria's brother)

Sara (Paul's wife)

Emma (Paul and Sara's daughter, age 11)

Mrs. Maria, Rhys, Paul, Sara, and Emma are all from Wales, Mrs. Maria and Rhys live in America now but the others don't. Emma had never been to Disney World before and I got to be a part of her very first trip! It was pure magic. I was dying all day, getting to see her experience the park for the first time. Every single thing we did was so exciting and magical and special for her. It was really humbling for me because they were all things that I've been doing every day for the past three months. 

When we first got on the ferry and she saw the castle for the first time I could have died. She was squealing with delight and looked like she would burst from excitement. The best part though was that Mrs. Maria was probably just as excited as Emma was, even though she's been there before. When we got to Main Street for the first time the two of them had to take a moment to soak it all in: staring at the Castle. It was the most precious aunt-niece moment. 

From there we went straight to see my parade, the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party parade. I love love love watching this parade every time, but getting to watch it with Emma was really special. To fully experience the parade, dancing is fully required. Emma was a little shy at first but eventually came out with me. We danced near Sheriff Woody and she kept saying, "Wow! He's just so big!" Like she couldn't believe he was really life sized. It was precious. Then when it was time for the parade to leave again, we stood at the side and waved to all the people going by. When Lumiere went by I could tell he recognized me. He pointed straight at me and started blowing me kisses. I blew kisses back and waved and just laughed with him. Emma thought this was incredible. She kept yelling in her little British accent, "Oh my gosh! He recognized you! He really knew who you were! That is so cool!" I seriously felt like a celebrity. 

I explained to them all exactly what it is I do on the parades, so they understood my job and how un-glamorous it is. Yet I could tell they still thought it was glamorous. Any job at Disney is glamorous, right? It's magical at least. After the parade we went to get fast passes for Space Mountain and got in line for the Buzz Lightyear ride. I really enjoyed just standing in line and talking with Kevin and Rhys. I was glad that at no point in the day did I feel uncomfortable at all hanging out with them even though technically Rhys is "my brother's friend". We've all hung out before of course and we're family friends, but there's usually that "brother's friend" awkwardness when I hang out with Zee's friends. It was really awesome that there wasn't any at all with Rhys today. I was glad. Then Rhys and I battled each other on the Buzz Lightyear ride and I whooped him. It was a pretty embarrassing loss for him so I'll spare him by not telling y'all the score. (123,900 to 7,900. Oops!)

From there we rode Space Mountain and then I had to leave them for a little while. I had class in the afternoon so I left to take care of that which gave them all some family time which I think was nice. They split into their own respective families and covered ground on the things they thought were most important. They didn't meet back up with each other until I got back to the park too. It was just by coincidence but the timing worked out perfectly! Emma wanted to go see the princesses so we headed over to Town Square Theatre. The ride for the princesses ended up being an hour and the line for Mickey was only 20 minutes so she decided on Mickey instead. Mrs. Maria, Kevin, Rhys and I left them to visit the famous mouse and we went to find some food. We settled on jumbo turkey legs for dinner. I mean, it's Disney World, how can you skip out on the turkey legs? Rhys didn't get one, but I made sure he knew he was going to have to finish mine when I got full. No way was I eating that whole thing. 

When we found Mrs Maria afterwards she had gotten prime seats by a table near Tomorrowland. It was the perfect spot to post up and watch the Electrical Light Parade and Wishes from. Paul, Sara and Emma met us there and then Sara, Rhys, Emma and I went to the Emporium to get Emma some stuffed Mickeys. We left with more than we went in there for, but who doesn't? Then we trekked over to Space Mountain's gift shop to get this special keychain for Mrs. Maria that had her nickname on it. We got back just as ELP was starting which was perfect. It was really great to watch them see it for the first time. I just loved getting to share these new experiences with them, especially Emma. She just looked thrilled the whole time. Kevin, Rhys and I were making fun of the music because it's so incredibly repetitive. And we were watching the ducks. Rhys really likes ducks. It was fun. 

I had been mentioning things about the projection show to Kevin and Rhys all day so when it finally started I was really excited. I really love the projection show, it might be the coolest thing they do there I think. I just listened to Rhys's comments through the whole show and watched it with brand new eyes. It really is spectacular. They loved it, of course. But we all know the real thing they were excited for: the fireworks. I'd been keeping the 'Tinkerbell flying' secret from them ALL day and it had been so hard. Then, right before Wishes is about to start, this stranger lady goes and tells them about it. I was so heartbroken. Kevin could tell and it was a joke but I was genuinely sad that they weren't going to get to see it as a surprise. It's always better as a surprise. When Wishes got started I was fully in the magic mode and watched it in all its glory. I think it's the most magical I've ever felt when watching Wishes. I'm sure it's because their first-timer mindset had transferred to me too, but it was simply phenomenal. When it was done I just looked at Emma's face and every single crappy day I've had at work was worth it. 

It's really easy for me to get caught up in making this experience a routine. To get up, go to work, do some remedial tasks, do some more remedial tasks, go home, go to bed, wake up, do it all over. And it's also really easy to not enjoy going to work, to lose the rose-colored glasses and find certain things that really suck about work. But at the end of the day, I came here to have an experience. To learn new things. To broaden my horizons. And, of course, to make magic. Getting to see Magic Kingdom today through Emma's eyes was the biggest reminder of that. Even with Mrs. Maria; she was just as excited about every little thing that Emma was and she'd been there before. It was all just as magical for her which was so precious to see. Things like Disney World will be magical for people and they remember it forever. If I got to help bring a little bit of magic to someone's life, then every single crappy, boring, terrible moment at work will have been worth it. I'm so glad that I got to experience what I did today. It will make it so much easier to savor my last month and a half here. 

That's all the magic for today!