How I got here and a week before it begins (Part 1)

This first blog is in two parts because it’s so exhaustingly long. But I promise you none of my other postings will even compare to the length of these.


Part 1 (How I got here)

So I guess the story starts way back in 2003 my sophomore year in high school when my friend Rachel Hatton told me that I reminded her of a little fairy named Tinkerbell. I think she said this because I was small, blonde and wore excessive amounts of glitter that could act as pixie dust. I’ve always thought I’ve acted a bit like this fictional character—short tempered sassy, and tad bit jealous. So from that point on I slowly started collecting Tinkerbell paraphernalia. This small collection has grown to be ridiculous in size over the years. I have practically everything Tinkerbell...my room decor, my laptop cover, my house keys, I even have a Tinkerbell car complete with a Tinkerbell license plate. When I lived in the dorms my college friends all thought I had a 3 year olds room...I once invited my friend Caitlyn home with me and she said “I thought your dorm room was bad but damn Sam this room is fairly land.” People who first meet me don’t always remember my name but can remember my obsession with Tinkerbell so they either call me Tinkerbell or “the Tinkerbell girl” which I guess doesn’t bother me too much. So you get the picture I’m strangely obsessed with this fictional Disney fairy.

I hadn’t ever thought of working for Disney until someone mentioned being Tinkerbell in Disney World would be the perfect job for me. I didn’t even know how one went about obtaining a job as a character. I found the Disney college program after searching the internet my sophomore year in college. The Disney college program offers several internships one of which being a character performer. You have to complete an interview and audition before getting the job. I went through an interview process to start working my spring semester of my sophomore year. However, I did not go to the audition because I decided I did not want the internship at that time. I couldn’t see myself taking a semester off from UNC Chapel Hill to go work in Disney World. They told me in my interview that if I was still interested in the internship but was concerned with missing a semester of school I could reapply for it for the semester after graduation. So that is exactly what I did. I’m taking year off of school before graduate school and going to Disney world :)


I auditioned back in March in Atlanta, Georgia. I drove alone 6 hours there on a Sunday morning, auditioned 5 hours and drove 6 hours back because I had class Monday afternoon. I know that sounds like an awful trip which all the driving was but overall it wasn’t that bad because I had a ton of fun. When you first get there you all line up, get a number and have your picture taken. There was a little over of 100 of us at that audition. (They told us over 1000 people audition throughout 6 big cities in the US). We had to perform a small eight count dance before they made the first cut. Despite being a cheerleader all throughout high school most of you know I’m not very coordinated and cannot dance very well. My friend Anna says I don’t dance but bee-bop (more of bouncing around than dancing—I’ve heard it’s pretty entertaining to watch.) With that being said I didn’t think I’d make it to the next round and was so busy packing my bags that I didn’t even hear my number being called for round 2. Another girl had to point out that I needed to go into the room for the next step of the audition. We then had to do an animation exercise where we pretend to be our favorite Disney character without talking (the judges are supposed to know which character you are through your nonverbal communication.) I’m sure we all looked ridiculous I know that I did because I was running around making pouty faces, showing attitude and flapping imaginary wings HAHA. Its embarrassing but I made it to round 3 where we had to perform a really long intense dance. I know that I messed up majorly but still had fun. Upon leaving the audition they tell you that “out of the 1000 that audition only 200 are selected so don’t be upset if you don’t get the part...you are all fabulous and we hope you have a magical day”—so Disney like to say. At that point I wasn’t counting on getting the job but was just proud of myself for trying and I knew that I had a great time and would have regretted not making the trip to Atlanta. Several weeks went by before they contacted me and offered me a position as a character performer :) I still don’t know which character but am super excited to be going.