It’s the fall semester of our sophomore year, 2018. On this crisp, October day, people are bustling to their classes while Sam, Kait and I sit peacefully in our triple room in Goshen Hall. We are snuggled up in our beds watching Netflix when Sam brings up how she’s been to Disney thirteen times, again.

“Guys, I just love Disney so much! There’s this thing called the Disney College Program where you can live and work in Disney for a semester, and I think I’m going to apply for the spring of 2020.” says Sam. “It’s so hard to get in so who knows what will happen. I’m definitely going to apply this summer though.” Hearing this at that point in time, I thought nothing of it. I had no idea what our plans would be for our junior year, and Sam went into so much detail about how hard it is to get in. She occasionally brought it up throughout the year, but I felt confident that Sam would be with us for all of our junior year.  

It’s the summer of 2019. I’m at the pool with the kids I babysit when I get a text from Sam saying that she got through the first step of the Disney College Program, the web interview. “Everyone says this is the easiest part of the interview process, I’m so nervous for the phone interview!” I tell her that she was born for this job and that no one is more obsessed with Disney than she is, and that she’s definitely got this.

A few weeks go by, and I get another text. “I just went through the phone interview. I don’t think it went very well.” I asked her what she thinks went wrong, and she tells me the questions they asked and the answers she gave them. I thought her answers were really good and I told her that, but I still wasn’t sure if she would be getting in because of how many people apply and how so little get in. I forgot about the whole thing until we were leaving science with Professor Maxwell in Schmucker South in the fall of our junior year, 2019. It’s 1:45 pm, and Sam is freaking out.  

“I got an email to check my application. I’m so nervous! I hope I got in!” Minutes feel like hours as time slowly drags on, but no more than 2 minutes have gone by before we’re both in tears because we discover that Sam got into the Disney College Program. To clarify, Sam’s tears are entirely happy ones while mine are half cheerful, half terrified. At that point in time it had hit me: my roommate since freshman year was moving to Florida for a semester and I had to find a new roommate. Worst of all, I would have to share a room with this random stranger.