Please hold while I pause from Disney and write this appreciation post.
I never thought leaving a workplace would be so hard for me. At my dance studio, I had developed relationships over the course of thirteen years, so it made sense to me why it was hard to say goodbye to those I cared about there. At my theater, I've been involved in four shows with them over the course of the past year, so once again, those tightly-knit relationships make sense to me why it's so hard to leave them. But work? I was there for a month and a half!
I'm learning that time has not relativity in the world of friendship, however. A month and a half was somehow enough for me to get to know all of these amazing people, both pictured and not pictured here. It's been amazing to work alongside each of them, and I'd like to take a moment to try and highlight all those who I worked with.
~ Those Who I Met, But Wish I'd Known Better ~
Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet everyone; neither did I get to work with everyone for very long. But those who I did meet I found to be very nice, and I'm so grateful to have worked with them!
Alex (pictured right), Kyle, and Sam were some of my moderators while I worked "The Row". They were all really nice humans, and I honestly had so much fun working with them!
Katie (pictured left) and Emma were newcomers while I was at Alcatraz - in fact, I met Katie on my last day! I was lucky enough to be able to help train both of them in The Row actor's part, and at the same time, I was able to get to know both of them. I'm sad I wasn't able to work with either of them more, but I'm glad I was able to meet them both!
~ Senior Staff and My Trainers ~
Being fully honest, the title of a job and the person it was attached to had nothing to do with the amount of friendliness and received from the senior staff.
I met Bailey the day of my interview. I remember she'd walked into the office to watch one of her rooms, and she had smiled at me as she sat down in front of one of the monitors. It was that moment that had left a lasting impression of what type of place I was going to be working in; I didn't feel like the new kid, I felt like I was already being welcomed onto the team.
I didn't get to know Triston well, but from the time I spent working alongside him, he was always kind and polite. Regrettably, I wasn't able to say goodbye to him on my last day like I was able to with everyone else.
Next to Bailey, I was able to work alongside Rhyan (pictured right) and Tommy (pictured left) the most. They really helped to keep up team moral, in my opinion, and they both helped to make work a ton of fun!
Cassie was my trainer for The Row acting. In all honesty, I can attribute a lot of my character to her. She was really helpful explaining how she gave clues on what puzzles and gave a lot of examples of how she performed her role. She apologized for "rambling", but it was that rambling that helped me through my first few rooms! I don't think I can thank her enough for all she's done!
Vanessa, the manager, did most of my training and really helped with my work experience there! She took me through the rooms, communication was fast and easy with her, and she always answered my smallest and dumbest questions. It's not wrong for me to say that I never would have met any of these people if she hadn't decided to take a chance on me and hire me, and I will always be so grateful that she did!
~ Co-Workers ~
Last, but definitely not least, are the other co-workers I worked with. Everyone became my friend and I will eternally be grateful with how welcoming they all were with me!
I met Isaiah on my last day of training. He'd come in for his first day, and we trained together on The Row acting. He was always great to work with, and it was nice knowing I wasn't the only "new" one at the time. Whenever we worked the same shift, he was always there to help with the resets, and it was really great getting to know him!
The last thing I expected was to find someone from my past at Alcatraz. I was so surprised to find out Nathan worked there, because we had been in the same dance class at my former studio. At first, it was weird for me to see someone from a dance class outside of the class, but I found that he's really a lot of fun to talk and work with; I'm grateful to have gotten to know him outside of the dance class environment.
For some reason, Connor (pictured left) was really easy to get along with from the day I first met him. I'm not sure what it was, but I remember shocking myself when I realized I'd told someone to "fight me" on the first day I'd met them. I didn't usually use that phrase with new people in my life, so my shock with myself was well-warranted. However, the few times we had shifts together were so much fun, and perhaps even worth the brutal teasing I received anytime we crossed path.
I met Siarra a few shifts into my time at Alcatraz. We hadn't really talked much the first shift we worked together, but all that changed when we got talking about dance. I found we both had a lot in common about our feelings on competitive clogging, and we just sort of clicked over that one topic. After that, she became a really good friend of mine there, and I'm really glad I was able to get to know her while I was there.
I got to know Jace around the same time I met Siarra. He was working the Extinct room, and I'm not quite sure I remember how we became friends. It just sort of happened, but I'm so glad it did!
StaciRae (pictured bottom right) was really the first person outside of the people I knew prior to joining the team (Shaylee and Nathan) that I became friends with. I'm not quite sure how it happened; just one day she sat down next to me and I started to ramble about who-knows-what. I paused mid-sentence sometime during that conversation and apologized for randomly becoming more open, and I guess that's where it all began. She's been really supportive, and helpful, and just overall friendly and nice to me my entire time at Alcatraz, and I can't imagine what my life was like not being friends with her!
In reality however, I really have Shaylee (pictured top right) to thank for everything that I've experienced here. We met through a college acting class and she encouraged me to schedule an interview at her workplace. I was a bit hesitant, but she seemed to really have fun with her job. She was really fun to talk to and I felt she was sincerely nice to me from the get-go. I'm so glad to have met her and have her as a friend, and I can never thank her enough for recommending this job to me!
Well, this blog-post was probably long enough, and I know it doesn't seem to be related to my Disney adventure at all. But it does; these people helped set a high standard of a what a workplace should feel like in my mind. The atmosphere and the feelings throughout the employees wasn't filled with any hatred or distaste, which I definitely appreciated. Everyone got along so well, and they were there to help one another out whenever the need arose. I realize every workplace is different, but I don't think I want to experience a place that isn't similar to what I experienced at Alcatraz Escape Games. I hope to return there when I finish my program at Disney, and if (when) I do, they better be ready for me!
6 days left before I head off to Florida; excited and nervous are the two words that best describe me!
"Never say goodbye, because saying goodbye means going away, and going away means forgetting."
- Peter Pan
