Nick Cross: Finding an Equilibrium

Working at Disney is a great and eye opening experience as it shows how much can be achieved when keeping myself busy at all times of the day. The term burning the candle at both ends keeps coming to mind through my months here at Disney as one end of the candle that is burning is my work life and the other side is my social life.

Upon first arrival at the Vista Way property the days were non-stop socialising as we had not yet started work so we were just sorting out paperwork and every now and then we had a meeting to go to or a class at Disney traditions. So our major focuses here were to meet new people at continue the socialising from the time at UCR. We learned of the party buses that happen every night leaving from the Disney properties to different social locations around the area including the House of Blues, Buffalo Wild Wings, and One South all of which are great places to visit, these buses then return back to Vista Way at around 2 30am. So I realised that there was definitely not a shortage of things to do when going out with friends and I found that my social life was booming.

Then came the time to actually start working for Disney World after training was completed and so began the 10-12 hour shifts I had four times a week which were fine to work because I figured once I’m at the workplace I don’t mind working a long shift and I am thankful to have the extra day off a week. The only problem with these shifts was that while lifeguarding the sun is on me all day so my energy was drained really fast and I’m on my feet for a lot of the day. Just when I started to get into the routine of working these hours and still socialising the same amount as I did before I started work I then started to notice how tired I was getting until I started to get cranky and lethargic in the workplace and at home.  So I figured that obviously I had to cut back on my social life so I can improve my work life and I did until I got to the point where I barely went out at all unless there was a party actually within Vista Way.

 

I definitely started to improve my work life when cutting back on my social life and I was being a lot more productive at getting assignments completed for class, until I started to come back to the apartment complex and seeing friends from UCR and other Disney programs and they would complain that they never see me anymore and I was even getting the same complaints from my roommates as they would go out but I would complain that I am too tired and that I work the next day. Then it started to hit me that I can and should go out still as this is part of the experience and the time of my life to do this, so I limited myself to only a couple of nights a week and it works as I am finally starting to find the balance between work life and social life instead of entirely devoting myself to one or the other.

My life is certainly getting better because of it and I am still meeting new people and forging stronger relationships with people I know while still keeping professional and attentive at work so neither side is too much affected by the other. I plan on fine tuning this way of living to make the most of it and enjoy the last two months here in Walt Disney World!