You’ve done the thing. You’ve came back for a second (or third, or fourth) college program. After you pack all your things into your car (probably less things than you took on your first program because you’ve learned no, you don’t need 5 sweaters) you drive or fly down to Florida and start your check in process.
The beginning might be a little different than your first program, with check in always changing slightly. The process of getting your housing ID and your itinerary for your first week doesn’t seem as overwhelming. You know where the complexes are, where the good grocery stores are, where the laundry rooms are. You know how to get to dinner places and which places have discounts. It doesn’t feel like the constant rush of “what’s happening” and completely new things.
Casting isn’t as nerve-wracking as it seemed to be the first time, doesn’t seem like a second interview as much as it did the first time. You move through fingerprinting like a champ and know how to decipher the location sticker you get, and probably know exactly where the location is and at least one person who works there.
The first week of freedom you get after you finish your housing meeting somehow isn’t as magical. You resort hop, you go to universal, but you’ve been there before. It’s not the rush of ‘new, new, new’ that was your first program, but it’s nice to be home. You have wide eyes at the new loud CPs on the bus, wondering when they’ll figure out it’s not okay to yell. You have wide eyes when the CPs try to sneak into resort pools, wondering when they’ll figure out it’s not okay to break the rules like that.
You’ll enjoy it in a different way than you did before, more like a homecoming rather than a grand adventure.
Traditions comes soon enough, and you cringe at the 6:55 bus ride, the loud CPs who are trying to outshine each other with Disney trivia. You understand their excitement and anxiety, though, because you were once there. You keep quiet about the secret parts because you don’t want to ruin anyone else’s surprise, and you smile thinking about the first time you went through this.
The thought of going through the hours long courses (Welcome to Operations!, Once Upon a Time is…NOW!) makes you cry a little inside, but you push through, listening for anything that might have changed. You try to reassure the first timers who seem overwhelmed at everything, because you were once there, too. Most importantly, you drive yourself to training because you realize the bus life is not the life for you and you know where Disney University is, thank you very much, itinerary sheet.
While the process may not be the shining, grand trip you remember, it’s good in a different way. The process is more gentle, more nostalgic and soon enough the overly enthusiastic CPs will calm into the regular CPs. For now, you just want to sit back and think about how lucky you are to be back.
