"No Matter How Your Heart is Grieving, If You Keep on Believing, The Dream That You Wish, Will Come True."

 Nineteen-year-old Anna Orchid sat nervously, waiting for the audition to start. It has been one full week that she had learned of this audition. But, this was not any old audition where one had to stand on stage to sing or dance, this was a Disney Character audition.

Anna read that Disney was looking for people who can perform in a fully costumed character, like Mickey Mouse. This meant that she will be wearing a potentially heavy costume, with limited vision and needed to have a range of motion with her body. Not to mention she will be exposed to hot and humid weather. But the most important part was that the person had to be at least in the rang of four foot eight to five foot.

Anna's mom saw this as an opportunity and told her daughter about this. After a lot of thinking, Anna accepted, even though her fears were getting the best of her.

Not to mention that Anna was already used to standing long hours and was exposed to hot weather almost every day at her job.

Two women with Disney name tags called the small group of people who had already to arrive to give them numbers. As Anna stands in line, she noticed that a small man stood behind her. Yes, everyone in the room was around the same height as the others but he was the smallest out of everyone. She remembered watching him arrived in a blue car with a Florida license plate.

One woman with dark hair gave her the number nine sticker and told Anna to go sit back down. Anna put her number where her heart was and sat back down with the others. As always, she observes them.

Most of the people in the group were girls who looked to be eighteen and older. One sat with her family and wore full make-up.

Who wears make-up in an audition that is meant for you to get all sweaty? Anna thought as Tramp popped in her head and added Snob hill.

This is no good, I got to interact with everybody if I want this job, Anna said to herself so she listens to the girl with the red hair.

The girl with the red hair was putting on her shoes that looked like ballerina shoes. Makes sense as the building they were for ballets.

"This is the third audition I've been to." She started to say.

"Third?" A girl questions, two people beside Anna.

The Red Head continued to talk about her expertise and how she was in the college program.

"When I was at Disney, I was friends with, Mickey, Minnie, Stitch, Chip, and Dale."

Everyone in the room was amazed and so was Anna.

An older woman, who looked like she was fifty and sat next to Anna, talked about how she used to work for the cinema and experiences with cameras.

"I don't care if I get this or not, If I can get into something else, that will be great." The older woman said next to Anna.

The redhead then added about how this one guy entered the audition that said no College Program people around, like this one, but he went anyway. She said that he was bumped down to a Character Look-a-like.

Anna thought about this. Wait, if I don't become a character performer I can get to be something else, instead? She was then full of hope.

Soon, one of the Disney women called for someone named Margarita. They needed her for something and the woman left. She had to be the second oldest person in the audition besides the older woman next to Anna.

The girls started to share stories, even Anna shared one of her chores days as that was one of the subjects brought up.

Then the two woman came back and told everyone to step into a room and fill out paperwork. They told everyone that the paperwork was the hardest part of the audition. And it turned out that the group Anna was in, was the smallest as they were expecting more people to show up.

Once everyone filled out papers, the two woman moved the group to another room. the room was a ballet room with the height measurement. Everyone stood with their numbers and was measured. Anna forgot to look at how tall she was as she was being measured.

The group started to take off their shoes and sat on the shiny wooden floor. The room had a great view of the city as the morning sun seeps through the windows. Anna felt glad to be taking this chance even though she was scared. But she did not let fear take over her as many others were doing the same thing she was doing.

The two woman introduced themselves as Sarah and Kat. They told the group about what they will be doing in the audition in steps and how characters at the Disney Parks speak with their bodies. They showed a demonstration with Sarah pretending to be Minnie and Kat as a guest.

This opened Anna's eyes as she recalls back in her memories of her trips to Disney in the past. This audition was looking to be challenging.

Sarah began with a warm-up lesson. The warm-up part of the lesson was like charades but guessing what each other's partners motion was and try to act along with it.

As everyone chose their partners, Sarah called for people over and tell them what to act out. Anna went first, with others. Sarah told them to act out changing a tire. This freaked out Anna as she had no clue on how to change a tire because she did not know how to drive. She just had to guess, as best as she could do.

As everyone went with their partners, Anna's partner was the little man, Kat played music called "Rock Around the Mouse 7. Mickey Motion", Anna did her best to act out as if she's driving, then hit a pothole and pumping up the tire. When it was time to change for the partner to do the same, Anna's stood there not knowing what to do. She cursed at her self and hope that no one was looking at them. She was so embarrassed.

The music stop and everyone guessed at the changing of a tire, which left Anna red-faced. She felt so sorry for her partner and to her self. She should have let him go first as the next topic brought up.

She watched her partner walk around and seemed to be cutting hair. Ah! He's acting as a hairdresser. She got this. When it was her turn to act it out, she pretends to finish up the invisible person's hair as he just finished up washing it. She blows dry it, cut it up a little more, and put things away.

After that, it was time for the big guns. The two woman then showed danced moves that looked familiar to Anna. Like the moves, they do in front of the castle.

The group reenacts the moves and the little man quit. Kat and Sarah told him to stay and try even though he said it was too hard for him. Anna comforts him, telling him that it was hard for her too. It was hard though. She kept on messing up but she kept doing it with a smile.

The woman said that even if you mess up, make sure you keep on dancing with a smile and that's what she did.

Then it was time to dance to music in four groups. They danced the routine to "September" by Earth Wind and Fire. When Anna's group came up, she messed up the routine and forgetting the steps. She was feeling the pressure but tried to smile and remembers to nod her head in the end.

She knew all eyes were on her. And it felt weird since she was the only wore Disney characters on her crop top. She also thought she was the only one who wore glasses but the older woman wore glasses as well.

When it was time for the next group, Anna tried to cover her face with her hand, hoping for the audition to be over. She watches the other groups and in one group, as the music starts, a black girl moved with the rhythm before the chorus starts. She was the only one who moved her body before the lyrics started and she killed it. She was the best one in that group if not out of the entire audition.

If Anna was choosing people to work at Disney, she would have chosen that girl. She was that good.

Once the very hard routine was over, the two women said it was time for another acting sense but this time it would be a Halloween theme. Sarah told them that at Disney, they get ready for Halloween in May up until October then get ready for their Christmas activities and then back to Halloween in May. Anna thought that was cool.

This time, in the charades act, they had to perform like an evil scientist working on his "Frankenstein" monster and on the other half, be the monster. And the scientist and his monster can be anything the group can think of. Anna, being creative as she is, thought of the monster to be a puppet ballerina.

So as the spooky Halloween music played, Anna acted like a crazy scientist putting up her lab and stitching up her puppet monster. When it was time to be the monster, she risen with her arms up as if they were held up with strings, smiled and forced to dance gracefully while looking up at her master.

She didn't pay attention to the others but one girl's "monster" was money by the looks of it.

What seemed like hours, Sarah and Kat thanked us for coming and we were told to leave before adding that everyone would hear back within two weeks and always check their emails. They also added something about to be at Disney World in six months. Anna did the math and in six months, she will be at Disney since she was taking a vacation there.

Anna quickly grabbed her things and before she left, she went up to them both, thanked them for having her while shaking their hands firmly. That was very important.

She told her mother about what happens and then they left while driving around the state. They ate at a diner like a restaurant that was very Greek but had great food there. Anna made a note to go back there. Then the mother and daughter went around to stores like Goodwill and Anna kept finding a lot of Disney related items. Was this a sign?

At one point, Anna looked at the sky and found a cloud that was shaped like Mickey Mouse. When she pulled out her phone to take a picture, the cloud disappeared. or was she seeing things?

Hours later, as they ate Taco Bell for dinner, Anna's mother showed her daughter some rocks that were found on Facebook. Where they live, everyone was doing a rock hunt. Find a rock and rehid it while posting it on Facebook. Some can keep them if they wanted to. One rock caught their eye. It was red with three black circles in the middle. Someone actually made a Mickey rock and Anna wanted it.

So, Anna and her mother went to the location where the rock was and looked for it. Anna got out of the car and searched around the front of the store where it could be. She was beginning to lose hope, as the rock seemed to be nowhere to be seen. Then in front of her, on a pillar, was a red rock. Could it be? As she walked closer, she knew it was the rock with Mickey's face on it. She smiled, grab it and climbs back into the car.

She tricked her mother that the wasn't there and then pulled it out of her pocket. Anna knew right then and there that this was definitely a sign that she was getting that part and work at Disney. Anna did not really know what she wanted to do in life but after that audition, all she could think about was working at Disney. She felt hopeful.

Flash forward to two weeks, everyone and everything tried to recover from the effects of Hurricane Irma, well in Anna's state, it turned into Tropical Storm Irma but it was still bad. Anna checked her emails once again as she found no email about the auditions. She sighs and before she closed her account for the day, a new email popped up. Her heart stopped as she breathes, clicking on it.

Tears ran down her cheeks as she found the email she was looking for two weeks. The Disney auditions. And they wanted Anna to be part of the magic.

No matter how much Anna's heart was grieving, she kept on believing as the dream that she wished did come true.

FUN FACTS:

Everything in this story, except for a few changes, happen in real life. Why? Because I lived it.

August-23-2017 just two days after the Solar eclipse.

Here's the rock: 

Every name was changed to hide everyone's identity while Margarita's  wasn't. There really was someone named Margarita.  XD  Sarah and Kat's real names started with S and K.

Anna's name is taken off of my real name. If you take the letters out of my name and rearrange them, you get Anna.   ;)

Even though this story has a happy ending, I twisted the end as I got no answers from the Disney audition. No email and no phone call. After almost a year, nothing. But that doesn't mean I haven't stopped trying with phone calls and emails. 

Even when I was at Disney, back in February of 2018, the Cast members who I talked to, thought it was weird and even recommend me to go to the Casting building that is across from Disney Springs.

I will never give up and I'll take that 50% chance of getting in.  After all: "The dream that I wish will come true."