What I Learned from Blogging

1. It isn't easy
     In reality, I "didn't have time" to keep up with the schedule of posting I initially planned. I had the time, but rather than sit down and take the time to write posts, I much preferred spending my time out at the parks or socializing with my roommates when I was in my apartment. If I wasn't doing one of those two things I was working and there was no way I'd be able to write a post while I was there.
     Looking back, I could have hand written them if I had a dispatch shift at work, but that thought never crossed my mind while I was there. Or I could have been writing the posts in my phone while I was waiting in line at the parks, but rather than have my face deeply rooted in my phone, I was much happier socializing with the people I was at the parks with. It also crossed my mind as I was writing all the posts after the fact, if I ended up writing every single week of my program like I had initially planned, a lot of it would have become redundant. Most weeks were fairly repetitive, between work and going to the parks, I did the same thing every week. All that was changing was which park I would be going to or who I would be going with.
     Therefore, I kept up with posting weekly for about the first few weeks when everything exciting and new was happening. Casting, Traditions, Training, getting the Main Gate, all of those early milestones. But once everything started to become much more regular, writing seemed less exciting. After I left though and was looking back at everything I did and could think to tell people about, I had a lot more ideas. So I thought of all the major events that took place, and any topics or tips I could potentially give an incoming CP and created my ideas for my posts through that. It was a blessing in disguise because as I kept thinking back and brainstorming post ideas, it also solidified the memories I made while I was in Disney...which brings me to my next lesson learned.

2. You'll make the memories truly last forever
     It is impossible to remember everything from every single day, but I gotta say I remember A LOT from my DCP and I credit a majority of it to this blog. When I had to think back and put it all into words, I remembered everything from those days I wrote about and some of those major moments from my DCP. And then I went back and selected pictures for each post which made me remember even more. At times it made me sad looking and thinking back at everything but at the same time I was also very happy to have such vivid memories of my DCP to come back to. If you choose to make a blog, do it for yourself and remember this, because even if no one read what I have written, I have it to always look back on and remember some of the best moments of my life.

3. Take a lot of pictures
     Going into my DCP I told myself I would not get overly obsessed with taking pictures of everything at every moment I was at the parks and I didn't. Which on the one hand I am grateful I didn't because I truly did enjoy my time in the parks more because I wasn't constantly whipping out my phone. But on the other hand, when I was putting this blog together, there were certainly moments in time I wish I did take more pictures, it ultimately would have given me more options to work with when choosing them for my posts. All that being said, take a lot of pictures, but never overly obsess about it. I am and was a firm believer in enjoying the moment and keeping my phone in my pocket allowed me to do so.

4. Do it for you
     And keep that as your driving factor when writing. Don't do it for notoriety, don't do it because so many other people do it, do it because you want to and enjoy it. I was inspired by all the other blogs I read when I was coming up on my DCP and wanted to be able to share my experience as well as answer as many questions as possible that I had before my DCP. For the most part I found that I was successful in achieving the goals I had hoped to achieve and then some. As I was writing, I began realizing how much I enjoyed it, how passionate I was about the positive experience and impact the DCP has, how much I wanted to share my experience and how inspired I was to keep writing. So here I find myself continuing to write and enjoying every second of it.

5. Don't be ashamed
     I kept my blog "hidden" for over a year and slightly regret that I did. My entire program not a single person I met or worked with had any idea I had this blog and I never said I had it. Not even my family knew about it and for months afterwards I was still reluctant to publicly say I had this blog and share it with my friends and family. In retrospect, no harm would have come from sharing it but I still never did mainly because I did not want to sound like a self promoter prancing around telling everyone I have a blog.
     But once I did eventually show it on social media, everyone was very supportive and excited for me, which was very reassuring. It is also something I am very proud that I was able to create so all the positive feedback I received felt very good.