Living the Dream—Before Dawn

Friday, April 11, 2008

Page 15

AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)

Living the Dream—Before Dawn

By J’AMY PACHECO

When my daughter announced her intended profession at the ripe old age of six, I underestimated the impact those words would have on both our lives.

She was in first grade when it was announced that for “Career Day,” the students at her school could dress as what they wanted to be when they grow up. Until then, I’d always believed she was planning to go with the career she’d mentioned during her pre-school graduation ceremony: that of becoming a cowgirl.

On career day, there were plenty of cowboys and cowgirls. But my daughter bucked the trend, instead placing a set of pink Mickey Mouse ears on her head. She wore a blue t-shirt on which she’d painfully transcribed part of one of Walt Disney’s speeches with a Sharpie pen, and carried around a blank napkin which, she explained, imagineers use to jot down brilliant ideas as they occur.

Although she decided in first grade to work for Disney as an imagineer, I honestly thought she would change her mind, eventually aspiring to become something like a teacher, ballerina or a pizza parlor sign twirler. I was wrong.

Her desire to create theme park rides has grown more intense over the years. Nearly every science fair project she does has a connection to theme parks. Her last three Young Author competition entries were books somehow connected to Disney. Her Imagineering career fair board was so well received that it’s been traveling the lecture circuit with a teacher for almost a year now.

It was, therefore, no big surprise when she asked to go to a signing last weekend by four Disney imagineers marking the release of a DVD set called “Imagineering the Magic.” Since we’re in the desert and the signing was in Anaheim, getting there early enough to assure entry into the two-hour event meant getting up before the crack of dawn. I decided we’d spend Friday night at the Disneyland Hotel.

I was so worried about getting my future imagineer to the event that I barely slept. We were up, showered, packed and out of our room by 6:30 a.m., and inside Disneyland by 7:03.

The cast members gathered outside the cinema, where the signing would take place two hours later, hardly blinked when they realized we planned to wait. If they thought we were crazy, they gave no sign. And when a young man showed up about 15 minutes later to join our line, they were quick to make sure he sat on the queue side, keeping my Disney girl at the front.

The time flew by as we made conversation with the people seated on the curb with us. We reminisced about “old times” in the park – Disneyland’s 50th anniversary celebration, in-park movie and ride premieres – sharing memories and laughing a lot.

The young man directly behind us – an off-duty Disney employee who also aspires to work at Imagineering – confessed that he was nervous about getting to meet one of his idols. My daughter – the only child I ever saw in the growing line – was nervous as well. I wondered if the imagineers inside had any idea what this event meant to their fans outside.

It didn’t take long to realize they did. My daughter stepped up to the first table and, her voice shaking, said, “I’m going to be an imagineer.” Since I was behind our camera, I missed most of what was said, but the smile on her face was unmistakable proof that she’d been well-received and heartily encouraged to pursue her dream. She came away inspired, energized, and most anxious to begin working with the people she’d briefly met. Too bad they don’t have internships for 12-year-olds.

The young man we’d spent our waiting hours with left before us, so I never got to find out how he viewed his first face-to-face encounter with his potential colleagues.

When we left our hotel room, the sun wasn’t even up. When we left the cinema, my daughter’s face shone so brightly that it wouldn’t have mattered if the sun had taken the day off. That made the whole overnight effort and expense totally worthwhile.

I can’t begin to imagine how it feels to carry a dream for six years, and to see yourself move toward it, one size four step at a time – to desperately want a job when you’re not even old enough to drive yourself to work.

The blue t-shirt containing Walt Disney’s words has long since been outgrown, and lies folded in her dresser drawer. In six more years, my baby imagineer will start college and will finally be in a position to make her dream come true.

As they say, all it takes is faith, trust, pixie dust…and an occasional inspiring visit with an imagineer.