Happy New Year! I have just come back from a short trip to visit a friend in Orlando, Florida, and while we were there, I got to go to Universal Orlando Theme Park and try out all the rides and experience the Harry Potter world. Now, I’ve not seen any of the movies, or read any of the books (shocking, I know), but I did get to learn a lot about what goes on in that whole scene, and find out that supposedly I’m a Hufflepuff (you can decide if that’s appropriate or not!)
Now, the whole Orlando area is big on theme parks. Many people move down there from all over the country with the dream of “working for the Mouse” and they go to experience all rides and attractions. In my conversations with my friends (who have worked for both Disney and Universal) and other people that I met, I learned a lot more about the industry of theme parks and how they run as a business. I met a guy who works full-time at Disney, yet is a season ticket holder at Universal, and had already been to the park enough by January 14th to have paid the entrance fees for the year and make his pass worth having. These people are hard core!
One of the things that struck me, was that there seemed to be so many people who were there just to be entertained. It didn’t seem like they were looking to actively experience anything, but passively wanted to have something happen to them. I’ve seen this in many places and it always makes me feel sad. It’s like people don’t have any drive or spark in there lives of things they want to do. I was told by my friend that years ago Disney opened up a Disney Learning branch so that people could come and learn more about how things are done there and they had to shut it down because people weren’t interested in learning anything.
I think that Orlando in particular tends to attract people who want to be entertained, but I’ve seen it in many other places. It’s like people are so tired or beaten down that they don’t have the energy for anything. I know that many a night I’ve gotten home, and all I feel like doing is watching YouTube videos on the couch. The thing is, I’ve found that that isn’t very energy-giving, and when I do it I drag myself to bed not feeling any better than when I started.
I’ve been doing a lot of research, and have seen in numerous places that what gives people energy is usually not resting, but actually being active and creating things. I have found that most of my friends are the types of people who sing, dance, paint, write, or do some other things that are creative, and I feel better when I’m around them, and I certainly feel better when I am doing things with them.
Especially in these days when it’s cold and dark, I often just want to sit like a lump and not do anything, but I’m finding that that isn’t working for me, especially as I get older. As it’s January and everyone is thinking about resolutions (I prefer to think of intentions, as that puts a lot less pressure on myself), I’m just trying to keep moving my body and my brain to process and keep things flowing. As they say, when you stop moving, you’re dead. I intend to keep on living for a while.
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