Attention Airdrie!
After a two-decade long wait, I, Briana Shymanski, am finally fulfilling the entry that has been on the top of my bucket list since before I knew what a bucket list was or how to make them.
As you read this, I will be cavorting around Disneyworld hand in hand with a reincarnation of my five-year-old self.
The trip was a present from my parents, who I think are slowly realizing that with all of their girls growing up, leaving home, meeting boys and preparing to start their own lives, the chances of getting the gang altogether for a vacation are slipping away.
There was no one happier than me when they announced that the Shymanski Family Vacation of 2013 was going to be Disneyworld. My sisters, all of whom are younger then me, suggested Mexico or Hawaii or somewhere tropical, somewhere trendier. As I mentioned I have been waiting 20 years for this trip and there was no way they were going to deny me my ultimate dream. There would’ve been hell to pay.
I am of the Disney generation. I owned almost all of the Disney VHS tapes. I wore them out until the tracking was messed up. Adjust the tracking: there’s one thing the kids of today won’t understand. I had every Disney song on a CD, which pacified me through long road trips. I had Disney bedding, clothes, books, cutlery, plates, dolls, you name it.
I remember when I was about seven my parents brought us to Calgary for the summer and I thought the Disney store at the Chinook Mall was the Taj Mahal. I walked into the store a few months ago and noticed how small it seemed in comparison more than 10 years later. It was a kick in the butt that had ‘you’re growing up’ written all over it.
I miss being a kid and I think that part of the reason I’m looking forward to this trip so much is that it’s a chance for me to hold onto that last part of my childhood that’s still kicking around in pop culture. And Lord knows, I’m holding on with both hands.
In this crazy rollercoaster that I call being an adult, between working two jobs, paying bills, stressing about money, relationships and living away from home, nothing makes me feel better than a Sunday afternoon Disney movie marathon or cranking Disney songs on a Friday afternoon in the office.
It takes me back to a simpler time when all I had to worry about was whether I should go play outside or stay in a colour after lunch. Back then, I didn’t wake up to a text saying that a family friend was getting divorced or that a childhood friend had passed away from cancer at the devastatingly young age of 22.
Disney defined my childhood. I cried when Mufasa died before I even properly understood the concept of death. Seeing my favourite princesses find their prince had me believing in love and happy endings back when I still believed boys had cooties. I knew all the words to all the songs before I could read.
So, if you’re asking if the 22 year old will giggle when she sees Mickey walk past her or if she’ll do a full-fledge photoshoot in front of Cinderella’s castle, the answer is a whole-hearted ‘yes.’ Will she come home with a pair of wearable Mickey ears? Yes. Will she come home with a pretend wand even though she could by a new dress with that money? Yes. See explanation below.
Disneyworld is home to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, I now have a chance to introduce five-year-old me to 12-year-old me, the nerdy, spectacled book worm who spent her formative teenage years with her nose buried in the story of a boy wizard.
It is a fandom collision of epic proportions and I. Cannot. Wait.
