joe randel's art dump

As I’ve stated before, Disney was wonderful.  There is an interesting aspect of it though that made it enjoyable.  The human interaction.  Let me explain… when I was there, I wore a Happy Birthday pin with my name on it.  This isn’t strange in it’s self, but what it does is lets the employees know that I’m celebrating something.  The result is that for the next ten days,  just about every Disney employee I passed by wished me a happy birthday.  At first it was a little odd, but then you get used to it and soon you’ll  even quite enjoy it.  It’s becomes sort of ridiculous really.  So much in fact that you’ll start wishing strangers with birthday pins a happy birthday too.  Because you know they’ve heard it about 50 times already and it’s not even lunch time.

Disney employees almost always talk to you, even if it’s not your birthday.  They are outgoing, happy and very friendly.  This too at first is sort of a shock, but you adjust and realize how nice it is to talk to… people.  Soon you feel comfortable talking to just about anyone when you’re there.  You’ll even start up conversations with other guests for no real reason.  You all share this commonality, and that is to have fun, relax and enjoy your time there.  It really is a wonderful feeling having simple conversations with others as you go about your day.  Even simple a simple “hello” or wishing someone a great day is awesome!  What’s really jarring is when you come back to the “real world” and you find that no one really does that.

When I got back this time I was saddened that that level of interaction with people was just not there.  Most people will usually go out of their way to no have any unnecessary conversations with others.  You know what I mean.  Keep your head down, don’t look at anyone, avoid talking with strangers…  It kind of sucks since we are all, by nature, social animals.  Since I’ve been back, I’ve been making a conscious effort to be more upfront and friendly with those I come in contact with during my day, and you know what, it’s great!  I obviously can’t do it on a Disney level, but being friendlier and not being so concerned that I might have to talk to someone (or that they’ll talk to me) has made me happier.  True story!

Now, I do realize that Disney employees have to be that happy and friendly.  I have no doubt that this is part of their training and they will probably loose their job if they’re not that way with the guests.  But most of those people are probably outgoing anyway.  Otherwise, I doubt they would have even got hired in the first place.  But you know what, who cares!  It has to start some where.  Being nice and friendly is infectious.  Being around Disney people makes me want to bring that home to my own life, and try to spread that around!  I know others will think I’m strange, but what I’m doing isn’t bad or wrong, it’s just something that most try to avoid.  I hope, at the very least, I can make someone’s day a bit brighter through my interaction with them.  I know it helps me. ^_^