Entrance to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida
Growing up, my family and I did not spread our wings and travel to new places. My mom used to get motion sick and my dad worked long hours at his job. When we did find the time to take a formal vacation, we would save up our money and go to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. We did this for every single trip we took until I was 11 years old. Whether we traveled the 19 hours from rural Pennsylvania in a crammed car, an RV, a charter bus, or an Amtrak train, we would excitedly await our arrival at a Disney Resort and begin to plan out our must-dos for each day. In my eight trips to Disney celebrating various achievements with separate groups, I have been fascinated by the transformation I have felt arriving through the gates of the happiest place on Earth.
Coming from a small town where entertainment is scarce, these vacations were the highlight of my childhood. I was used to the family-owned amusement park named Knoebels that three generations of my family (including me) have worked at. Even at an early age, Knoebels did not bring me as much joy, nor did it have the resources that Walt Disney World possesses. Walt Disney World really appealed to me as a kid by its thought-out details seen all throughout the four main parks.
My first trip to Disney (age 4)
When I was asked as a little kid what I wanted to do in the future, I said I wanted to be a Disney cast member. I did not care about logistics, I only cared about staying out past my bedtime in a place where I thought working a job would never get old. (Fun fact: I got to be an honorary cast member twice for performances in Epcot and the Main Street of Magic Kingdom for marching band!) As I aged, I gained a passion for solving puzzles and math, letting my parents introduce me to the idea of being an imagineer (Disney’s engineering team). I thought about this for a while, but decided to stay away from engineering as I thought it would be too complex for my liking. Instead, I found a love for architecture and urban planning.
You see, when I visited Walt Disney World in middle school, I had just received a project in math class that had me planning out my future by looking into different colleges and costs. When I stumbled upon the question asking me for my future major, I was dumbfounded. I wondered what I could do other than engineering like my twin sister was so confident about. I found myself analyzing resorts, rides, and the green spaces between while I was on vacation, prompting a google search for what majors would deal with the innerworkings and layout of these areas.
That is why I feel as though my visits to Walt Disney World have turned me towards a career in urban planning. I was always inspired by how drastically different the four main parks could be, yet how they also could cohesively fit into one another. From eating dinners in Cinderella’s castle to attending food and wine festival in Epcot’s world showcase, to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge attractions in Hollywood Studios, and safari rides in Animal Kingdom, the sheer number of experiences all under the umbrella title of “Disney” have opened my eyes to how diverse an area can be.
When I learned on one of my later trips to Disney that it was not as spread out as I had thought and that you can even see certain parks from one another, like Epcot’s Morocco and Hollywood Studio’s Tower of Terror, I could not even begin to fathom what other opportunities this could lead to for spaces of the same area either as a tourist destination or a city itself. In comparison to my small city of 8,000 in population, 43 square miles would take up the size of my high school’s school district, which has no geographical diversity and looks very homogeneous from a wide variety of lenses. This vast difference given the same area has piqued my interest in planning as a major and career as Disney still has this welcoming sense without feeling too overwhelming to visitors.
My most recent trip to Disney (age 17). We recreate this picture every time!
Hi Lauren, please set up your nickname as your real name and post, so the teaching team can recognize you. Thank you.