Real Life Confessions

OK--so when dealing with the internet, I am a bit paranoid. I try not to give out too much "real life information"--staying private and safe is very important to me. For example, Kate Ryan is not my real name--but, if I ever successfully become a published fiction writer, that is what I will choose as my "pen name". However, I am also trying to make contacts and connections with people, so being "fake" can hinder that process sometimes. I have been quite vague in this blog for a long time--I have mentioned Florida, but nothing much more specific than that. I have uploaded photos of myself, but not of my other family members. I created the blog to try to connect with other women who feel as I do, who are going through similar situations, etc. However, being SO anonymous has kind of prevented me from succeeding in this effort to connect with others. I may begin to share more personal information in the near future, but I still want to continue to be very cautious. I may soon be "getting real"--but not TOO real--I want to be connected with the right people and protected from the wrong ones. It can sometimes be tough to balance both of those efforts, but I will try!

I will continue to use the name Kate Ryan--and I think it would be ok to say that I chose this id in honor of my son's and daughter's names. Hopefully that won't give TOO much personal info away by saying that! I will say that we are currently living in Georgia--but I don't want to be too specific as to where. And I will say that we are trying to move to Orlando, Florida--and I hope that people from Orlando can help with advice about moving there and living there. My husband's job will HOPEFULLY end up transferring to Orlando in the near future, but there have been some MAJOR delays regarding that because of the economy. Even though he has been working in Orlando a LOT over the past few years, for now, they seem to need him more in Georgia--and they don't know if and when they will be able to officially transfer him to Orlando. So, it is up to me to begin the moving process--it is up to me to get a job and get the move started--it is up to me to find a place to live and get my teens registered at their new schools--and hopefully my husband will be able to FINALLY get the house sold and FINALLY get his job transferred to Orlando soon after the rest of us get settled there.

There are some other details about our life that I'm just not quite ready to share yet. Let's just say that there are some special needs that we have that need to be attended to, and it isn't easy to make that happen. However, when a family member needs something very unique and specific, most people are willing to do just about anything to help them gain access to resources that will help them. Our move to Florida is based on meeting special needs of one or more of our family members. I may share more later, but that is enough about that for now.

As for my career goals: I think I can be more specific and still be safe. Basically, my bachelors degree was in elementary education, I was a teacher for a few years, then I became a full-time mother, then I returned to graduate school and completed a masters degree in writing/journalism/communications. Since graduating with my masters degree in the spring of 2007, I have been attempting to begin a new career in a new field as I conduct my job search in Florida. I have some big dreams regarding where I can take my new career in the future--I really would love to find a way to use my degree in writing/communications with a media and entertainment company. One of the biggest and best media and entertainment corporations is: The Walt Disney Company! My "dream job" would be to work my way up through the ranks of the corporate world via Disney. If we are moving to Orlando, what better place to begin this process than: Walt Disney World! I have applied for many jobs all over Orlando, but my heart is definitely set on working for Disney. I have been trying to find a way in the "Disney door" for over two years now and I have not had much luck: until now!

Over the past two years, I have applied for many different positions at Disney--many were actually in the Communications Department and would have been exactly where I would LOVE to be! However, I never received any responses about those positions. I think Disney really wants to promote internally more than hire new people, so I am assuming that people within the company probably were put into many of those positions. And the fact that I don't have a lot of experience working in that particular field to date may also have bumped me out of the running for some of the higher level positions. Last year, I actually received a few calls about internships within that department, but the fact that 9 months had passed since my graduation date(with my masters degree) kept me from qualifying for internships for students or recent graduates--in other words, I was "overqualified" because I was not still in school or a very recent graduate. I was steered toward the professional jobs, which is good, but I was not getting any responses about any jobs even though I applied for many. This went on and on for about two years--I was beginning to think that my chances of working for Disney were very slim and just weren't going to work out as I had hoped.

I continued to check the Disney jobs site daily and applied whenever something seemed appropriate, but I never heard from Disney and I guess I began to give up on that dream. In the meantime, I decided that I was going to have to go back into my previous career as a teacher to gain employment--I did the paperwork for Florida teacher certification, I registered with some of the school district web sites, and I began applying for teaching positions. I still continued to apply for jobs in my NEW career field, but I began to think that I would have to go back to teaching in order to just get ANY career established in this tough economy. I heard on the news that there are three areas that should survive the recession: healthcare, education, and government. I have NO training in healthcare, I didn't see a LOT of options with government jobs in Orlando(but still a possibility), but I DO have experience in education--so I began to think that I would just need to focus on that for now and follow my "dream career" later when the economy improved.

Then, out-of-the-blue and completely unexpected: I FINALLY got a call from Disney!! My experience in education ended up leading me to Disney more than my masters in writing/communication did! I will be going to Disney World in a few weeks to interview for a position with the educational programs department. Essentially, I could use my teaching skills to work at Disney World! Even though I was HOPING to steer my career into a new direction, I may be going "back to the classroom" so to speak in order to finally make a connection to Disney. Even though this is only a part-time position, I think(or hope!) that somehow I could begin making connections that would allow me to add more part-time positions, add hours by covering for other people's shifts, and eventually be able to move up through the ranks to a full-time position in the future. I am looking forward to being a teacher in a fun Disney environment! :) It will be VERY different than working full-time in a regular classroom! And maybe I can add more hours during the week by working other part-time positions at Disney--I heard that there is an Intranet system that Cast Members(employees) can use, and I also heard that Disney prefers to promote internally rather than hire new people. So, the key to eventually moving up within Disney(and yes, it will probably take a LONG time!) is to start SOMEWHERE--that "gets you in" and gives you access to information that you would not have access to otherwise. If nothing else, working at Disney part-time helps you make connections and contacts that would not be available to you otherwise either. I am really looking forward to going to Disney World soon for my interview! I am feeling confident about things--I know that I am a good teacher and I work very well with kids and teenagers, so I feel confident about my ability to do this job--basically, I am just SO excited about FINALLY scheduling an interview! :) I certainly hope that everything works out and that I can FINALLY begin making the "Disney connections" that I have dreamed of for so long!

Everyone in our extended family is very supportive of our efforts to move to Florida. They all agree that it would be the best place for our family(resources to meet our special needs). My grandmother died last year at the age of 92--she was well aware of our special needs and wanted so much to help us find a way to make things better. She left a substantial inheritance to her children and grandchildren--not a LOT when divided up, but enough to help some of us through some tough times. My family agrees that she would want us to use our portion to move to Florida and make this all work out, so that is what we plan to do soon. My husband still feels the need to stay here in Georgia until he can make a lateral transfer to Florida--and until we sell the house! So, my two teenagers and myself may be heading down to Orlando in the next few weeks. We will probably rent temporary housing until we get everything more settled. I will probably be working part-time at first with the hopes of moving up to full-time in the near future. My teenagers will soon end third quarter at their schools here and it seems that enrolling in their schools in Florida for fourth quarter will work out okay. Times will be tough for a while, but hey--we'll finally be in Florida! It won't be exactly as we had planned, but it will work for a while. And hopefully we can transition into a more permanent situation within a few months--our plan is to live in Orlando for at least 4 or 5 years(when both teens graduate and we are ready for more big changes). It is kind of scary to make a really big move when you feel that you don't have ALL of your "ducks in a row"--but if we wait, we may never do it! We have a chance to go now--we should do it and find a way to MAKE it work! Wish us luck! :)