It's Okay to Hate Your Pregnancy

 I think the only thing worse than a horrible pregnancy, is not being able to fully vent about it. Too often people think when you say, "I hate my pregnancy!", you're also saying you HATE your baby too. When that is never the case. Why is it so taboo to talk about the bad times? Why do we need to always paint this pretty picture with rainbows and sunshine for women. We can't also shine light on the bad? I can tell you almost every single thing I am going through is rarely ever talked about. It's something I wish more women knew. So they can better prepare. I also wish it was more common to talk about how much you hate being pregnant without sounding unappreciative for being able to create life.

I understand more than others how difficult it is being able to have a child. I was told ever since I was 19 to have babies quick or else I wouldn't be able to have them at all. I've been dealing with fertility struggles at such a young age. This miracle baby is such a blessing for my fiancé and I. We couldn't be happier to be able to bring this bundle of joy into this world. But knowing the struggles we have gone through, doesn't make the pain of this pregnancy hurt less.

I remember being so excited to be pregnant. I LOVE food! I couldn't wait to be able to eat everything and have cravings. I was so excited to take cute baby bump pictures and write in a baby journal to document everything. I just couldn't wait to be a mom :) 

Instead I got long nights in the ER. 12 needle pokes in a two day span. Being so sick that I started losing weight rapidly. And not being able to eat food for days. I became so frail. I couldn't walk without puking. It was so hard dealing with all of this and having to put a smile on my face and downplay how I truly felt. The truth is that hyperemesis gravidarum is no joke and there is no happy way around it. Saying, "Oh you'll be so happy when the baby is here though!" doesn't make how women suffering with this are feeling in that moment. 

We know that yes, six to seven months down the road we will be so happy. But that happiness doesn't hide what we went through. Some women might decide that it was too traumatic to even want to have another child again. The stress of constant worry that how sick your getting is hurting the baby may not be worth it. And that is all okay!

There was a good month and half where I could barely leave my bed. I was so dependent on my fiancé Travis for everything. I was hooked up to a PICC line where I received 2 bags of fluids a day. I also had a 24/7 pump that hooked up to my stomach that gave me anti-nausea medicine. It was so hard for me being stuck inside and not being able to do anything. Barely being able to keep food down and all I could feel was helplessness. 

I am still on this medicine and it all really bums me out. I hate having to get poked in my stomach every three days. My stomach is filled with welts from the needle and just looks so gross. I hate having to explain to people that even though I was feeling fine yesterday, today I am not doing so great. I hate having to cancel plans and worry if my friends will hate me because I just am not feeling great. And most of all, I hate how I feel the need to hide how I am truly feeling. Because it feels taboo to talk about all of the not-so-glamorous parts of pregnancy.

Bottomline is that it's okay to hate your pregnancy. It's okay to not want to think about all the things you get to look forward to and just focus on what you are currently going through. I hate my pregnancy and cannot wait for it to be over. I cannot wait to be able to eat a meal again and not have to worry about puking it up later! I can't wait to not have to worry about losing so much weight and if I am harming my baby. I can't wait to be able to truly enjoy hanging out with people without the fear of getting randomly sick.

And none of this makes me a bad mom. None of this makes me unappreciative for being able to have a baby. And it doesn't make me love my little one any less. This one is for all my mommas who are going through it. No you are not alone and it's okay to want your baby here NOW! It's okay to hate your pregnancy. 💖

Life After Ovarian Cancer

People are always sold the narrative that being cancer free is living the dream. Yet, I have never felt that. I have always felt the opposite. I haven’t felt normal or like myself since August 2018. That was the last time I truly was myself. I have gone through something major every year since. It’s hard for me to be around others who are talking about loved ones they have lost, because I become immersed with survivor's guilt. Cancer has taken a toll on me and even with it completely gone from my body, I still feel it in my shadows everyday.

Being a survivor is feeling like I have to keep everything in, because “at least I am still alive”. But am I really alive when I am in a constant state of fear of the what ifs? It’s hard expressing myself when I am overwhelmed with thoughts of sounding ungrateful. That God gave me the will to live and not others. But it’s hard trying to cope when I feel like I have to cope alone. When the truth is that even if you are staring at the face of a survivor, that doesn’t mean it’s all sunshines and rainbows for them. I am still waiting for that. Every January, I make a wish hoping that this will be a normal year. That I won’t have to worry about surgeries or my fertility. That I can be that young hopeful person again. 

To be honest being a 25 year old cancer survivor is no walk in the park. I truly felt alone from the start. I was at an awkward age…18. I was just shy of being a child and being able to connect with kids my age. I had to go to adult centers where everyone was way older. It was hard to find someone who was going through exactly what I was. I was 19 when I first had to really think about my fertility. It was in the summer of 2015. I had to drop out of college the year prior to focus on my treatments. I was just focused on going back to college, making friends and joining a sorority. I didn’t want to focus on my health. I was ready to be normal. That was because that is what everyone had said. You get monthly scans and go about your day. Living your best life again. 

Instead I was met with constant anxiety from the start. My first scan after all my treatments they found another unidentifiable object. Which led to more testing. I spent my birthday that year waiting for results to see if I would become cancer free. It was later known to me that I would need to have surgery to remove a small benign tumor but could wait. I was so happy and filled with joy and went on to work for Disney for the next few months. When I came back home in the spring of 2015, I just assumed I would be preparing for my first full year of college. I didn’t expect to have to make a huge decision on whether or not I wanted to freeze my eggs.

My oncologist was concerned because I only had a partial ovary left. He wasn’t aware if the surgery I needed would cause me to have to lose my last ovary. I remember being so against wanting to go through fertility treatments. I was 19 and was not thinking about kids at all. I just wanted to go to college and be normal. I didn’t want to be tied up in a hospital again for about a month and a half. I didn’t want to be poked 5x a day with needles (no exaggeration). But I was young and naive and was so thankful my parents had me go through it. 

I had a procedure at the end of my fertility treatments and then another surgery a month later to remove the tumor from my ovary. This benign tumor came back that following January (2016) and it needed to be removed. In 2017, I had to go through the loss of my eggs I had frozen in 2015. The hospital I had it stored at had unfortunately lost my eggs. I didn’t realize then how damaging that was. I just remember being a Junior in college. Stressing about student teaching. Trying to pass my midterms and finals. And having to deal with the result of this incident. 2018 was when I had to go through the fertility treatments again. I wasn’t excited but I knew I needed to do this for my future. This was when I realized how much Ovarian Cancer affects you. This was the first time the nurse at the clinic had a concerned look on her face. That look of there weren’t many eggs. This was the first time menopause was brought up. I was only 22 at this point and couldn’t believe what I was having to deal with. It was the first time I really thought about not being able to have my own kids. I had doctors constantly telling me that if I had someone to have a child with now I should. I was still in college, single, and not thinking about kids anytime soon. It was such a weird feeling. I didn’t get a lot of eggs that time. 

In 2019, I found out that dang benign tumor had come back. If it was someone else, they would just let it be. But because of my history, I had to get it monitored. I opted out of having surgery because I wanted a break. I was graduating college and starting my job as a teacher. I wanted this to be a new chapter of life without doctors and scans. I wanted to truly start enjoying life. And it was so great being so carefree and happy for a while. However, in 2020, my doctors had suspected the tumor was growing. They thought it might be best to do another round of fertility treatments and have surgery.

I was heartbroken at this point. The emotional and physical toll a woman has to go through when doing fertility treatments is insane. You are getting poked daily with 5-7 needles. You are in and out of the hospital every 3-5 days for about a month. Then the week you have your procedure you are there every other day. You go through immense hormonal changes. Because the medicines make your body think you’re pregnant. It’s insane and crazy and tip my hat to every female who has gone through it. This was going to be my third time and it just made me so upset. But I knew I needed to do it. I lost all my eggs the first time. The second time I got very little. Not enough to have ONE child. I knew if this surgery damaged my ovary I would regret it. I was getting older and it was sinking in that I might not be able to have my own child.

It was hard for me to realize and emotionally process how God could put me on this earth and have my calling be teaching young children. And then turn around and take the possibility of having a child away from me. It took a lot of growth and years to realize that my true calling wasn’t to teach young lives, but to help others. And I do that by teaching where I do. And I can also do that by adopting kids in foster care who need a loving mom.

The surgery went well and so did my procedure with my eggs. They didn’t get a lot of eggs, but I learned I have enough to hopefully have one child if I ever need them. I was ready to move on and have 2021 be my year. I became 5 years cancer free. Which is a huge deal. Even being in a pandemic I still wanted to celebrate and be hopeful that the next year would be so promising.

I had my yearly followup with my oncologist in December. This was my year to get a pap. And ladies I know they are annoying but you should be getting a routine pap to check for cancers and stay safe! I had been getting them since I was 18 and was getting used to them. Even though I was going in hopeful and 5 years cancer free, I still had that worry. That I know every cancer survivor gets when getting their yearly check ups. I remember checking daily on my hospital app for my test results. And I remember that sunken feeling I got when I saw my results. I had an abnormal pap. I remember researching every word on the internet to find out exactly what my scan meant. I remembered calling my parents in tears because it told me I had precancerous cells. I remember being so scared and feeling so alone in my 1 bedroom apartment in the height of the pandemic. I was so thankful my job was virtual and I could teach anywhere. I couldn’t stop crying. Even though it was precancerous, I just wanted a break. It felt like I have been hit with one thing after another. 

In January of 2021, I had a followup appointment where I had a colposcopy. That is a noninvasive procedure where the doctor checks and sees if you have any precancerous cells on your cervix. I was a nervous wreck and spent weeks researching and searching reddit for experiences. Everywhere I read, it talked about how much pain you’d be in and how people normally take pain meds beforehand. I do not like taking medicine for personal reasons and was ready to tough it out. The best thing about not taking pain meds is that I had learned how to suffer through intense pain. It caused me to have a high pain tolerance and I honestly didn't feel a thing.

During the exam if the doctor sees anything that looks precancerous, they would take a small piece of the cervix and biopsy it. I was so happy that I saw nothing. I have to have a follow up to make sure everything is still good. But I am hopeful that it was just a mini bump in the road. Cancer scares are tough. And they are even tougher when you have them back to back.

In April, I started experiencing pain in my left ovary. I knew this pain. I knew something was on my ovary. Doctors weren’t taking me seriously. I was so thankful I have learned to be an advocate for myself. I have found my voice and kept asking them to run more tests. My worst fears were slowly coming true. This tumor was back. I spent the whole month of April and part of May, going to scans done on Wednesdays. I was so thankful to have my boyfriend by my side. 

Those were some of the most painful months I had to go through. The tumor this time looked like it was growing. I was getting told by one doctor to remove my last ovary completely. I was having to decide if this was the route I wanted to go. At 25, I had to decide if I wanted to go into surgical menopause and lose all hope of having a child naturally. All while teaching during a pandemic. I was so beyond stressed and sad and worried. I didn’t know if it was cancerous. I was trying my best to keep it together. 

I drove up to Cleveland Clinic to get one last opinion from their fertility team. I spoke with the most amazing doctor who put my mind at ease. She told me about the new advances in medicine that are available for women.They are able to take out my ovary and safe piece of my ovary. And when I am ready to have kids, they can reattach it and it can simply grow back. It was amazing to know I had this option especially because my ovary just keeps getting the same benign tumor.

So I am now sitting here in September. Waiting to schedule all my followup appointments. I as of right now still have the tumor on my ovary and am just monitoring my pain with it. I still need to have a check and have a repeat colposcopy to make sure I still don’t have precancerous cells.

I wanted to write this to show that women are tough as shit. And that life after cancer isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. Survivors are allowed to have bad days without others telling them to be grateful that they’re still alive. We know that, and trust me we are. But a lot of behind the scenes goes on after you finish your last chemo treatment. Our lives don’t always go back to normal. Some of us fear hospitals. I fear medicine simply because I had an extreme allergic reaction during my treatments. 

People are constantly fighting silent battles. Be kind to everyone. As September comes to an end, please make sure to know your body and understand the symptoms of Ovarian Cancer. It mimics regular period symptoms which causes it to become a silent killer. Because it was found too late. I caught mine at the very end stages of Stage 3. It is also a pediatric cancer. Kids as young as 12 can get the strand of Ovarian Cancer I got. Be aware, stand up to your doctors, and know and understand your body.

Fertility Medication

All of my medication

Okay so in this blog post, I am going to be telling you all about fertility medication. I will tell you what they do, their costs, and the side effects. This picture above is all the medication I will be taking over the next two weeks. There are a lot of needles, wipes, and 3 different kinds of medication!

Treatment

First things first: your treatment plan. Before you leave the hospital, you and your nurse will discuss the medicine you'll be using, the dosage, and when to take it. There are many different kinds of medicine. The ones I am taking are microdose lupron, follistim, and pregnyl (hcg). I am on the highest dosage of all of them, but that is because of how low my AMH and FSH levels are. Depending on your levels, will depend on your dosage levels. Dosage means how much of each medicine you inject inside of you.

Next, you will lay out a calendar of when you will take each medication. You don't start taking them all at once. I will go over my treatment plan, just know that this is something that will vary:

Day 1- I take 20 units (dosage amount) of microdose lupron at night

Day 2- I take 20 units of microdose lupron in the morning and at night

Day 3- I take 20 units of microdose lupron/225 units of follistim in the morning and 20 units of microdose lupron/225 units of follistim/10 units of pregnyl at night

And I continue Day 3 until my "trigger" day. I will explain more on this tomorrow. On your trigger day, you take a different kind of medication. And then 3ish days later, you have your egg retrieval. This typically happens after 2 weeks.

Costs

The costs of the all of the medication is insanely crazy. I only had to pay for one and my pockets started hurting. The one I had to pay for was microdose lupron. It cost about $600. The follistem comes in different units. I got 900 units of follistem. It all costs about $1,000. I got this medication for free. Pregnyl costs about $300. I had to get two tubes of that so really $600. That's about $2,200 just on medication alone. The only reason why I got the majority of this paid for was because of my past history of having cancer. The financial burden fertility preservation puts on families is so incredibly sad. I really do hope one day as a country we can reevaluate our healthcare system. 

What Does the Medication Do?

Each of these medications serve a purpose in helping stimulate the follicles in your ovaries. 

Microdose Lupron

Lupron is the medication that stops your body from ovulating. It stops the bodies process of hormone and egg development. When you first get the medication, You will have to mix it together. Your nurse will tell you exactly how to mix it and the dosage amount to use. It sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. You will have a very long needle that is only used for mixing. This medication needs to be immediately refrigerated after you mix it.

Follistim

Follistim is in a little tube and you use the blue and yellow pen. Follistim is a man-made form of a hormone that occurs naturally in the body. This hormone regulates ovulation, the growth and development of eggs in a woman's ovaries. This is also another medication that has to be refrigerated as well.

Pregnyl (low dose)

This is another medication that you will have to mix. The pregnyl is a powder that you turn into a liquid. This is a hormone used to cause ovulation. It also needs to be refrigerated after use

Usage

So the usage of each medication is a little different. The follistim is my least favorite. There is a special pen you use just for this medication. How it works is you put one of the tubes inside the pen

You then put the yellow part down and twist it onto the blue. The tube has a specific amount of medication in the tube.

 Mine all of 900 units. Your nurse will tell you what your dosage is for each injection. You will then turn the knob to that dosage amount

The needle goes on the top yellow part

You have to screw the needle on yourself. The needle isn't too big

The reason why I don't like this needle is because sometimes the medicine runs out before you have the right dosage.

This probably about 100 units of medicine. So I will have to inject the rest of this. Then take the empty tube out. And then put another one in. And then inject the rest. AKA getting poked TWICE. I hate needles so I don't like this. The pen will remember how much more of the medication you need, so you don't have to remember that.

Lupron and pregnyl are both a little easier to inject

Both of the needles look like this. You stick the needle into the vials. Turn them upside down and then take out the correct dosage amount.

I always ice 30 minutes before I get my injections. But to be honest, after awhile, the ice doesn't work. I am on day 5 of injections and they've ALL started hurting like yesterday. You have to give yourself the injections in your stomach. Your stomach starts hurting and it is so sore. It always hurts

:( you get 5-6 injections a day. It all depends on the follistim. It is horrible. I will not sugar coat it haha. 

Side Effects

The side effects are the worst and almost mimic pregnancy symptoms. I feel like my side effects have been 10x worse than the last two times I've done this. I feel nauseous every single day. And if I don't lay down for 30 minutes after taking the medication, I will have a headache all day. You get hot flashes and are so exhausted. You are very moody and hormonal. I am so irritable all the time and I randomly feel like crying. You also get bloated. These are the ones that I notice the most that effect my day. It is a challenge sometimes with working but I definitely make it work. 

I hope you enjoyed this blog and learned a little bit more on this process and all about medication. My next blog will focus on your second doctors appointment and what all the entails.  

First Doctors Appointment

My doctors appointment today was kind of frustrating. I was angry and upset all because of the cost. I went back to the "why me" mindset. Why did I need to get cancer? Why did I have to get cancer that would really mess up my chances to have kids? Why did I have to go through the pain and frustration of fertility preservation 5 years ago, just for a hospital to LOSE ALL MY EGGS?? Now fast forward five years, I am going on round 3 of fertility preservation and I might not even get any eggs this time...this is the sad reality for many women. It's a hard concept to grasp at the young age of 24...I will get more to this later. First, I am going to talk about what happens at your first visit!

First Visit

So you are at your first doctors appointment after you made the decision to go through fertility preservation...now what?? Well I will tell you, that first appointment is long and very informative. In the past, my mom was able to always go with me. However, because of Covid, hospitals are a lot more strict. When we walked in, we were greeted by two people at a table. We kind of had to check in and state why we were there. They almost didn't let my mom up because she didn't have an appointment. After explaining how she needed to be there to learn how to give me the injections and stuff they let her go up. This was the only appointment she was going to come with me to. The first appointment is always information overload, so it's nice to have someone who will have a clear head space go with you! You will probably be overwhelmed and emotional, so you might not focus the whole time.

After you check-in, you will go back to get a baseline ultrasound. All the ultrasounds you get are TV ultrasounds. I hate these. The baseline ultrasound is just so your medical team knows exactly what your ovaries are supposed to look like. They also let them know if they think there might be any complications. You will also get blood work. The first time you go, they take like 8 tubes of blood. They test your blood count, STDs, your fsh level, and your amh level, and if you're pregnant. Your fsh and amh levels are very important. Make sure you pay attention to what they say about these. Your amh levels lets you know how many follicles you have inside of your ovaries. Or essentially, your egg count. FSH levels allows you to know how close you are to menopause. The higher your amh and fsh levels are the better. That means you'll be able to get more eggs. The lower the levels, the less likely you are to retrieve many, if any eggs. 

After that, you will consult with your nurse practitioner. There she will go over your treatment plan, show you how to take your medication, and you can ask questions! Make sure you ask as many questions as you need to put your mind. If your test results are ready, you can also ask questions about your amh and fsh levels. They also talk to you about financials and how you want to pay. Make sure you get paperwork on how to administer the medicine. My next post, I'll go more in depth about medication and administering it and everything. 

The nurse will also go over your medication schedule with you as well. You have to start your medication on a certain day. You need to be on birth control before you start to help regulate your levels. You need to stop your birth control two days before you start your injections. You have a staggered start with taking the medication. The first day, you take one of the medications in the afternoon. The second day you take one in the am and on in the pm. The third day you add another medication, the fourth day you add another one as well. On your 6th day, you go back to the hospital to get another ultrasound and blood work. I will go more in depth on this process on my next blog when I talk about medications.

Cost

This is the part that truly angered me. How expensive it is to go through this. Insurance companies won't pay for fertility preservation or IVF because they are considered "elective procedures". These aren't things you need done. It's very frustrating. The surgery alone, costs a little over $3500. The blood work I got done today, cost $1500. And that's just for the first day of blood work. I haven't had to pay for all of my medications before, so I don't know how much that total cost is. I do have to pay for one of them and it's $500 dollars. It's a lot. It all adds up. Like I said in my last post, you will pay about $5,000-$12,000 just to do fertility preservation. That's not including IVF. It's insane. And the hospital I am going to has no payment plan. So you have to have the money up front. It's a big financial commitment on families. That is what frustrates me a little bit about the american healthcare systems. People who have to go through this shouldn't have to worry about the cost. There are ways to get discounts on things. I was able to get my blood work discounted. I am also in the process of getting majority of my medication paid for.

Livestrong: If you had cancer this organization will pay for part of your medication and egg retrieval surgery. Hospitals have to have a partnership with them though. 

Walgreens: If you had cancer this organization will pay for part of your medication and egg retrieval surgery. Hospitals have to have a partnership with them though.

My Experience

Today was a lot for me. I had to really come to the realization that my chances of having kids naturally are very slim. After I got my ultrasound and blood work, I went to talk to my nurse practitioner. It's nice because I am at the same hospital I was at before and so I have a lot of the same nurses! My nurse went over my amh and fsh levels with me. 

When I had ovarian cancer, I had to have one of my ovaries removed. Chemo damaged a lot of my eggs in my first ovary. When I was 18, my amh and fsh levels were the levels someone in the their mid 30's. Fast forward to today, and my levels are a lot worse. I do not have a lot of eggs left and my fsh levels indicate that I am actually in pre-menopause. This means that I may or may not get any eggs while going through this process. 

It is a really scary thought. I will know in about a week whether or not the medication is working. If it's not, I will stop this process. I only have 5 eggs frozen from the last time that I did this. If I am able to get qt least 5 eggs this time, it will be amazing! I am hoping for the best at this point. It is crazy to me to think at this young age, I may not be able to have my own kids. It is concept that is really hard to grasp. Working with kids all day, I do not know how I would feel if one day I wasn't able to have some of my own. 

I am trusting this process and hoping that This will go well and they I will be able to have good and viable eggs to use for the future!

Thank you for reading my blog :) my next one will be about medication and the treatment plan. I will also be talking about all of the wonderful shots you have to get!! 

My Fertility Journey: Part One- My Journey

It was hard for me to decide if I wanted to go through another round of fertility preservation. The process is rigorous and very demanding on your body. If you decide this is the route you want to take, you need to make sure you have time, energy, and money. You will be driving back and forth from the doctors 3 to 4x a week. The medicine you take will drain all of your energy. You will feel lethargic and sick. The medicine can mimic pregnancy symptoms which can make your body very uncomfortable. One thing that has never made sense to me is the cost. It's hard to find insurance that will cover the cost of this. You can wind up spending 5,000-12,000 dollars out of pocket for fertility preservation. It's really kind of sad when you think about it. People are already having to deal with the fact that they can't have a kid natural, you now have to add in the cost factor as well. The whole process overall is a lot to have to come to terms with. Everyone's body is different during this process. So what happens to me might not happen to everyone.

I want to document my process this time because I feel as if there aren't a lot of young females going through what I am having to deal with this. At the age of 24, this is my third time having to go through this. My first time, was after my chemo treatments. I was 19 and the doctors found another tumor. I only have one ovary left so they wanted me to go through fertility preservation in case I lost my last one. Chemo also damages your your eggs. When I did this round, I was able to get 9-10 eggs. My second time, I was 23. I got a call that the hospital where I did my first fertility preservation had lost my eggs. I now had zero eggs. When I went to do this round my numbers weren't good and I was only able to get 5 viable (usable) eggs. This number is low. It takes about 6-9 eggs just to get one child. I knew I needed to do another round I just didn't know when. My life was changing and fast. I was getting ready to graduate and I start my new job as a teacher. The only time I am able to do fertility preservation is during the summer. I didn't want to spend my last summer before I started my job in a hospital. Which made me decide to hold it off longer.

Then this year, in February, I had a cancer scare. I keep having these tumors that keep appearing on my ovaries. This is the third time I have gotten it. I will need surgery to remove it and there is a small chance it could be cancerous. Because of this, my oncologist recommended I go see a fertility specialist. Having only one ovary left, I decided it was a good time to do another fertility preservation. This was a really tough decision for me. But one I knew I would be happy about in the future. I was going to wait to have my surgery and do the fertility preservation, but with all of this going on, I decided right now would be a way better time. 

I will be staying in Cleveland for the next few weeks doing this. I am excited and nervous to be going on this journey again. I am excited that I am documenting this process and I hope I can help other women as well who might choose this path. 

My next blog will be focusing on cost and the first few visits :)

Meet my Roooomies!!!

I am finally starting to settle in and Florida is amazing! I am so happy with my roommates and we all get along so well. A popular welcoming activity that roommates do in the DCP is roommate gifts. I knew my roommates ahead of time so I was easily able to do this. Roommate gifts are exactly what they sound like, it’s where you make a gift for all your roommates! You can get them all the same thing or personalize it to their interest.

Lauren (Lo or L.L. Cool J)

Lauren went to school up in Massachusetts and is a certified teacher! Her and I are the most similar and I know we are going to have so much fun and make so many memories this Program. She is a big ball of fun and always keeps everyone laughing.

The roomie gift she gave us were beach themed mason jars with fireflies’ lights in them and our names on them. This gift was so sweet because she gave us a little bit of her with these gifts. She loves the beach and plans on teaching in Florida once she is done with the program!

Destini (Des or Dez-a-razz-a-razz)

Des goes to college in Georgia and is going to her super-duper awesome senior year as a theatre major. Des is my actual roommate and we get along perfectly! She is so laid back and chill and keeps our friend group humble! I am so happy to have her as a friend and I know we are going to have a great program together!

The roomie gift she gave us were a personalized blanket with our initials on it. It was so thoughtful and nice of her. We all use our blankets every day!

Gabriella (Gabs or Yo Gabba, Gabba)

Gabs goes to college in New York and is going into her senior year as an advertising major. She is so funny and artsy! She is our roommate that will be crafting everything for us! Every time I am with her I am always laughing and I know we will have a great program together!

The roomie gift she gave us were personalized notebooks. She painted our favorite characters or princess or movies on our notebooks. The books are amazing and I plan on using it as a journal for my program.

Viktorija (Vic or Icky Vicky)

Vic goes to college in Illinois and is going to be a junior studying theatre! She is so fun and loving and makes everyone’s day so much better! She is also very artsy and is very talented all around in the fine arts. I love acting and so does she so I can’t wait to go to plays with her! I am so excited for all the memories we are going to make this year.

The roommate gift she gave us were personalized letters with our favorite characters and a sign with our name on it. It was so awesome and thoughtful. We are all hanging our letters in our living room and I am going to hang my sign on the door!

Amresse (Armrest or Yonce)

Amresse goes to college in Pennsylvania. She is going into her senior year as a communications major. Amresse is such a character hahaha. She is very energetic and keeps our house lively! She is also ALWAYS MISSING IN ACTION. It’s a big problem haha! It’s going to be such a fun program with her and I can’t wait for all the memories we make!

The roommate gift she gave us were personalized to our style. Mine was Paris themed and I LOVE it! It was so thoughtful and nice.

All in all, I am so exciting for my program. We all get along so well and I can’t wait for all of the fun adventures we are going to go on together. Until next time!!

Going Back to Disney!!

Hello! It's been awhile since I last wrote, but I am starting to write again! Mainly because I am doing another Disney College Program!! I am so excited and I leave in two days! One of my best friends from college, who is also my sorority sister, is going to be driving down with me to Florida on Friday. Everything is happening so quickly, but I am excited to start this next chapter in my life! My college program officially starts August 7^th and ends January 4^th!

Fall Program

My first program was in the spring and this time I will be going in the fall! The fall program is typically one of the busier ones because of all the holidays. I am sad that I am going to be away from my family for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I am excited I get to bring joy and magic to other families who will be visiting Disney around this time! Other exciting things you get to be a part of during the fall program are all of the holiday parties! Disney has Christmas and Halloween parties all throughout the rest of the year. The first Halloween party kicks off at the end of August, so Disney is going to start putting up all of their Halloween decorations really soon! Disney also hosts something called the Food and Wine Festival in the fall. This takes place in Epcot and they have food and drinks from over 15 different countries set up for you to taste. I love food so I am excited to go to this!

My Role

So Disney has their own terminology, and your Job is called a “role”. The first time I did the college program I was Merchandise (retail). This time, I accepted a position in Children’s Activities! I am so excited I got this role because not only is it a hard role to get, but it also goes along great with my major! Every year about 40,000 college kids apply to the Disney College Program. Around 4,000-6,000 get accepted into the program, and out of those numbers, only 20-25 college kids get Children’s Activities. I have a role that a lot of people want, but not very many get. And I am so blessed and happy to be given this opportunity!

In this role, I will have multiple tasks. I will need to lead poolside activities: including water games, dances, and various activities, hosting campfires, outdoor movies every night, and things like that! My specific location has something called a Pirate Adventure, which I can get trained to do, and I can take kids on a treasure hunt. This would require me to get my boating licenses because half of the treasure hunt will be on water.

All in all, I am excited to start working with kids again in Disney World! I cannot wait to see the wonderful connections I make in with this job that will help me in the future.

My Location

I will be working at Walt Disney World’s Caribbean Beach Resort! I have never been to this resort so I don’t really know much about it. A lot of my friends have told me they have stayed here and said it’s nice so I am excited! I also talked to a girl who is already working there in my role and she said our location is wonderful and so are our managers, so I am excited to go and meet everyone and check out my new location!

Housing

Disney provides us with apartments to stay in and there are four different ones. My first program, two years ago, I got the oldest apartment, Vista Way. It was quite an experience living there but I knew I wouldn’t want to live there again! And I am happy because my roommates and I, all got our number one choice in Patterson! Patterson is the newest apartment complex and is very beautiful! I will be staying here the whole time until I leave the program. I also have five other roommates and we are a 3 bedroom 3 bath apartment.

I am going to try and update this blog as much as I can! I can’t wait for you guys to see all of my adventures in Disney this semester…until next time!