A Very CP Thanksgiving
When I was in the Disney College Program, we were called CP's (short for College Program interns). Part of the College Program was what Disney called the "Live" experience. In practicality, it meant that upon arrival at Vista Way (the housing complex), you would be assigned a three bedroom apartment with five other roommates you've never before met, and you'd proceed to live with these people for four months.
When it came to roommates, I could have done much worse. I was set up with a West Palm native who helped us through our first hurricane a week later, a redhead from "'BILE 'BAMA'" (Mobile, Alabama), a Chinese girl from Boston who ended up both to work in the same location as I did and be the person I shared a bedroom with, a girl from Connecticut who trained seeing eye dogs and who I ended up being good friends with, and another girl from my own home town who I had never met before.
Sure, there was tension once in a while. My Chinese roommate hated it when I melted cheese over rice. The girl from Mobile and I bickered over what "black ice" on a road really was. But overall, we formed a bond.
After our first week together, though, we hardly ever saw each other. Some of my roommates worked custodial at the Magic Kingdom and that meant they were working until 3 am and often not home until 4 am. Other folks, like myself, were waking up at about 5 am to go to work. With schedules all around the clock, sometimes your best friend came by way of having the same day of the week off as you (hello, Rainforest Cafe and AMC theater double-header Wednesdays!).
We were also away from our families for the most important holidays of the year, and Thanksgiving was the first of those. Even my roommate who could easily have traveled to West Palm and back during that holiday didn't. We all had to work at some point during the day. But that didn't prevent us from trying to have a Thanksgiving of our own.
Picture this: We're all 20-somethings who've never cooked anything more complicated than mac and cheese in our lives, but we want desperately to make this feel like Thanksgiving. So we placed an order about a week ahead with the Boston Market nearby for a turkey dinner. It was to include a large turkey and all the sides and fixings. Easy-peasy. Then, we found a time that we would all be able to be together for an hour to have a meal together.
The appointed hour came, and we sent off two to pick up the turkey. Unfortunately when they returned, they had bad news. The sides were hot, but the turkey was frozen.
Research was quickly done on how to cook a turkey and a plan was drawn up to create shifts and instructions so that whoever was at home at the moment would be able to continue with the turkey cooking.
It would take six hours.
Which meant there would not be turkey while we were at the table. When we got over the initial shock of the situation, though, we ended up laughing. We made a meal of the sides and sat around the table together, sharing stories of what our families at home normally do for Thanksgiving and sharing what we were thankful for.
We were thankful the hurricane earlier in the Fall wasn't as bad as they said it would be.
We were thankful our work units were feeding us at work that day (mine did an AMAZING barbecue right backstage at Animal Kingdom. I bet guests could smell it in the park and were wondering where those wonderful smells came from).
We were thankful for sun and palm trees.
We were thankful to be in the College Program at the Happiest Place on Earth.
We were thankful that the leftover turkey would make turkey soup and turkey sandwiches for days to come.
We were thankful that the first person up always put on a full pot of coffee for everyone.
We were thankful for each other.
We strangers were family to each other that day and our apartment was home, which just proves that wherever you are and whoever you are with, it is the spirit of the holiday that matters most.
I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving and hope you are with family, whoever your family may be that day.
