Working for Disney World is an adventure and a true test. Each day we are challenged with our patience and our true love for Disney by each and every guest. Each time a guest approaches me I have to believe that the worst is about to happen - an unfortunate side effect of working for one of the biggest companies in the world. If I approach any situation any differently then I'll be in for a rude awakening. While most situations are a mediocre interaction that doesn't leave a lasting impression, each Cast Member is honored and blessed with the few situations that stick with us forever

Here are just a few interactions I've had that will remind me why I decided to work for this company.

Forgotten Name Tag

Disney is a first name company, and, therefore, as cast members, we must always be wearing our name tags. Unfortunately, sometimes we just have those days where we forget our name tag, our backup name tag, and our backup for our backup. Unfortunately, these days all normally coincide with one another and if one person forgets their name tag, it's a good bet everyone has forgotten their name tag. One night when I was working in a pickup location (I took the shift from someone), I forgot all of my name tags and was given the option of wearing 'Sam from Orlando, Fl' going home. So, like any sane person, I wore the Sam name tag, and you by I wore it with pride. While checking out a family, I made small talk about the sister being real life Anna and Elsa, the little boy needing the small Stitch plush, and bidding them a good night. Before they left, the mother exclaimed for her daughter to look at my name tag. Turns out, her name was also Sam. I've never seen a bigger smile on a little girl's face and I've never been so happy to forget my name tag.

Random Hugs

Sometimes all you need is a hug. That's all that can make your day. At Disney, most days are spent searching and searching for anything to make the day even slightly better. Luckily, we come across a child or two that can turn a morning around in a split second. I was talking to a mother about our strollers, explaining how it was good all day and all of our parks, and out of nowhere her daughter runs over and hugs me. She's never met me before, and I don't even know her name. But she hugged me and didn't let me go, and I never knew I needed that hug until she let go. I was beaming the rest of the day, and when I was asked why, I had a simple answer. A little princess was able to make my day magical.

Levi

When Disney world is closing, most children don't want to talk. They've spent an entire day in a park (probably against their will, to be honest), they've been hot all day and they've been up for 12+ hours to see everything and do everything. So when parents come to my location to return strollers, wheelchairs or ECV's, the conversations are normally close-ended and short lived. This is to be expected, but on the rare occasion, there's a kid that's awake just enough to hold a conversation. And that kid tends to make my night magical. Levi was with his mom, grandma, grandpa and possible a dad or stepdad (how many people were in his party was a bit hard to get since he wanted a button for EVERYONE.) Levi was holding a baby Simba, and so I asked him about The Lion King and about his plush. We continued to talk about how his plush had two names in case he wanted to go by the other one, and how he had hair like Kion (for those of you who don't follow Disney Jr, that's Simba's son). Since Levi knew about Kion, a character most kids don't know about, I decided to give Levi his very own Lion Guard buttons, one for him and one for Kion Simba, so that they can both be apart of the Lion Guard and protect the Pride Lands with Kion and his friends.

These buttons are mass produced and are handed out to kids every day, but Levi was so proud to sport this button on his shorts and for his Kion Simba to have the button on the same leg. He ran over to his waiting grandma and told her all about the button, and his grandma looked very pleased and very grateful to be distracting her grandson while they got her ECV deposit back. She continued to tell me about how it was Levi's first time to Disney World AND they were celebrating his fifth birthday. Two very big celebrations in Disney, and they both have to be probably announced to everyone. So I took Levi to out assortment of buttons and helped him pick out his very own birthday button, 1st visit button and an I'm Celebrating button not only for himself, but for everyone in his party (which brings into question whether his dad or his stepdad was with them. I think he may have just wanted an extra button for himself.). In the end, regardless of how many buttons he wanted or what his lion's name was, the smile on his and his family's face made the heat and long hours worth it.