Campo de batalla: ICP 2012.. WHAT DID I LEARN?.

So, as many of you know I worked and studied at DisneyWorld last semester.

It was a great experience professionally talking and also personally.

Some of the most important lessons I learned during my college program are:

- GUEST SERVICE STARTS WITH YOU: Giving an excellent guest service became an important task without even noticing about it. It is important for the company that the cast members make a big effort to “create magic” even if you are selling ice cream or preparing chicken wings. At the end I realized that it was not only part of the job, getting to smile while you are having a bad day is something that once it becomes an habit helps you every single day of your life. It´s not about the money or the company rules, it becomes a way to see life, and I realized “the happiest place in the world” not necessarily its Disney World as long you are able to smile to others, and make others smile.

- THE WORLD IS BIGGER!!: Sometimes we think “our world” is “the world”. Life in our cities, ours schools or workplaces is the world for us. I realized how wrong I was in Disney World. I had roommates from Colombia, Costa Rica, U.S., Turkey, France, Spain and coworkers from India, Corea, China, Canada, Indonesia and a lot of other countries all around the world. And, regardless our cultural differences what I know now is I can learn something from everybody that will help me being a better person.

- PARTY: The most international the party is, the better… jaja just kidding but true... If you dont believe me watch this:

- SAYING BYE: when you are living something great, then having to say bye may be not the easiest of things. Even less if it isn’t when you “were supposed to”. So you have to keep it in mind since the beginning, being ready to say bye at any moment also includes making your best at every moment, so you don’t have any regrets when your time to say bye comes.

- JUST CHILLING BY THE POOL: during my College Program I saw a lot of people stressed because work was “hard” or they were missing home. I always tried to help them see how useless it was to be sad or stressed and tried to make them smile, and people liked me for that. So the lesson is if you can change something that is wrong, then try the hardest to do it. If u can´t, then don’t get sad or stressed, it’s senseless and it will only make things harder.

- FAMILY: a lot of young people, from all around the world, working hard, studying, partying hard too… Perfect environment to get to know friends that at the end, more than friends they become your brothers, they become part of your family.

- HOW TO TALK: you don’t learn other languages at school!! You have to talk and practice it to really learn. If you don’t believe me ask all of my friends, guests, and coworkers that tried to talk to me at the beginning.. jaja.

- I´M SO PROUD OF MYSELF: being just as I am, study what I study, where I study, being born where I was born, being Mexican, my last names, my story, what I´ve done, my family, my grandparents, my parents, my brother.. When I thought or talked whit someone about that while being there I realized how lucky and blessed I am.

- LIFE´S AN ADVENTURE: for me, every single day at work, at school, at home, was a really big adventure. And I realized I don’t need to be there to see life like that, every single day it’s an opportunity to create more stories to tell to my grandsons, an opportunity to make this life a little bit more interesting.