When I was young, my mom would drag me to the supermarket on Sundays, and I'd plant myself in front of the magazine rack while she did her weekly grocery shopping. There I stood, Tiger Beat magazine in hand; pouring over the latest Niley drama, making mental note of the lip gloss Ashely Tisdale was carrying in her purse, and reading about Zac Efron's rumored girlfriend. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was just the beginning of my life-long love affair for pop culture.
If you're reading this post (and thank you so much for taking the clickbait btw), you probably know that I'm Kait and I love all things pop culture and Disney and Jonas Brothers. But what you probably don't know is that I also love writing.
Or maybe you do know that I love writing because I like to send too-long paragraphs about my opinions in group chats and I'm always making long Twitter threads that never seem to really go anywhere. But the point is, I was a fierce writer for many, many years, which has been fueled by my love for Disney. On the first day of 6th grade, my teacher unceremoniously dropped a brand new composition notebook on everybody's desk and told us to write about what we did over the summer. I picked up my pen and started writing about our week at the Contemporary Resort, and I like to joke that I haven't put that pen down since that moment. I was just weirdly comforted by writing about my vacation -- whenever we'd have a moment of "free writing" time in that class, I'd go right back to that part of my notebook and I'd continue detailing that vacation like I was in a trance. In high school, when my family started visiting the Parks on a yearly basis, I discovered a message board where I started writing similar trip reports about our vacations -- I'm still fiercely passionate about them and continue to write them for that same message board today.
In 2016, when I was accepted for my first Disney College Program, I started my own blog. I was really motivated by other DCP blogs and vlogs of the time, so I started a Wordpress operation where I could talk about what I was doing, how my job was going, and everything else I thought others might find interesting about the program. When my Program ended, I moved off of that blog and founded a collaborative blog with a few of my friends on the Program where we took a broader approach to Disney Parks content. That project lasted for a few months before I started a project called tinkerkait.
tinkerkait was my biggest project to date. This site you're reading right now actually hosted tinkerkait for the 3-ish years I had it. I launched tinkerkait alongside a Disney instagram account and I loved it because it was my personal corner of the internet where I could talk about anything I wanted, mostly Disney related. Not to toot my own horn, but I was really dedicated to it and impressed myself with how committed I was to releasing weekly content. I remember I'd make these graphics that I'd use to promote my blog posts on Instagram -- I was just really proud of the work I was doing.
tinkerkait peaked mid-2019 to early-2020 when I was accepted to and began my second Disney College Program. I was accepted as a Character Attendant, which was a job I had wanted since I was in high school -- it was also one of the most competitive roles in the Program, so this was a huge honor for me and it felt like I had accomplished a lot just by being accepted. I was also an admin for the largest Facebook group dedicated to that season's DCP, and I found that I really loved helping first-time applicants and participants navigate the crazy world of the program, so I wrote a lot of blog posts detailing the ins-and-outs of this program. Eventually, Programs staff started noticing the work I was putting in to helping other applicants. In February 2020, I was 22 years old, fresh out of college, in my dream job at my dream company, living in my favorite place on earth and doing what I loved most -- I felt like I was on top of the world.
When COVID-19 took that job away from me and sent me packing back to NJ a month later, I felt like my entire life was starting from scratch. I knew I couldn't go back to the Program, no matter how soon the Parks reopened. I needed to stay up here and start a career with the degree I had just paid an absurd amount of money for. As I'm sure many of you reading can relate, the months following the initial world shutdown due to COVID-19 were some of the most depressing of my life, and subsequently, I fell out of love with both Disney and writing.
It's now 2024, and I am wildly grateful I never returned to my "dream job." Today is February 1, 2024, and I'm three years into my career at a company I love. I'm working in a desk job, which I always thought I was too stupid & unqualified to do, and I'm in a role where I'm fiercely passionate about the work I'm doing. I have a strong circle of friends, I had an amazing 2023 full of concerts, and I'm at peace with my life.
If you're still here, 1) god bless you, 2) you might be thinking "Kait, why did you cold drop this link on twitter and make us read this entire essay about your life?" And that's a really great question. The point of this is that I'm falling in love with writing again, and I'm ready for my next blog. I'm ready to be more open and vulnerable with all of the friends I've made in the past 3 years because of Jonas Brothers or maybe a different band that I followed around the country.
And... I'm ready to have some FUN!!!! Feels like this post has been kinda somber so far. Not like a eulogy, but definitely more like a quarterly deliverables report when the vibe I'm going for is Pop Star Magazine or Hannah Montana Fan Club Newsletter. I promise we just needed the context so I could get to the reason I've gathered you all here today.
The world needs more middle school slumber party vibes this is PERFECTION
ReplyDeleteWHIT!!!!!! Thank you very much for this thoughtful comment. I appreciate this so much. And I love you and I think you're very cool!!!!!
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