What does the Disney Cultural Exchange Program mean to me?

When I was barely 4 years old, my parents took me to Disney World for the first time. I was a shy little girl who would hide behind her mum's legs, avoid eye contact, and mumble responses to strangers (if I gave them anything at all).

Looking back on photos from that first trip, I was clearly a very introverted but happy child, and I don't think anyone would have responded to the idea that I'd someday work there with anything but laughter. These cast members (who we knew only as employees) were bubbly, loud, confident - I was anything but.

I was fortunate enough to return to Disney World several times over the coming years. On my next visit, aged 7, I started to feel the love of cast members with two very memorable magical moments. One was in the World of Disney store, where me and my sister were chosen to be the "princesses of the day" with certificates and glitter sprinkled on us.

The second was in Epcot's Rose and Crown as we were chosen to "set off" the fireworks through pressing a glow stick. I was young enough to be taken by it all, but also old enough to appreciate what was happening; enough to still remember it to this day.

These trips to Orlando were taken every few years and I fell more in love with this magical place that was now the heart of so many family memories. However it was at age 16 I found out how I could get involved.

Whilst walking through Fantasyland, we overheard a British accent and struck up a conversation with a custodian from Manchester. He told us he was a student, working there for the summer, and disclosed information about the oddly-named recruitment company he'd got the job through. The conversation was primarily aimed at my 19 year old brother as a university student himself, and yet it stuck in my mind for years to come.

My love for Disney movies continued to grow as did my fascination with the parks that I continually immersed myself in from afar, through the lens of Instagram. I'd periodically check the Disney Careers website for updates about what I now know as the Cultural Exchange Program (CEP), hoping they'd change the rules and I could apply in my first year of university rather than the second.

However eventually the time came for me to send my application off to the recruitment company 'Yummy Jobs' and, after months of waiting, hoping, praying, and having my heart skip a beat everytime someone brought up anything Disney related, I got the magical email I'd dreamt about receiving, telling me I'd been chosen to become a cast member. I would be spending three months living and working in Orlando, Florida.

For me, then, the CEP meant becoming part of the show, doing something that once never seemed possible, having my own dream come true as I watched those of others do the same before my eyes - perhaps I even had a part in helping them come true.

It was a summer of hearing stories from guests about how long they'd waited and saved to come here, giving them tips on ways to make their day even better, recommending an awesome place to eat I'd had the privilege to experience, taking their family photos that will sit in frames and albums for decades to come, and getting to walk around Walt's world as if it were my own.

The Disney bubble is a very real concept, and I was honoured to step into it for the summer and have it become my protective, loving, all-encompassing home that I never wanted to leave.

Being surrounded by people who adored the same things I do day after day, whilst also getting to discover new ones (who'd have guessed that me, a girl with no Star Wars knowledge, would get emotional seeing a stormtrooper at a shopping mall back home?!), I reached a new level of happy that trumped the exhaustion I didn't truly recognise until I was on the plane home (okay, maybe that one time where I stumbled up the stairs and my friend thought I was drunk was a moment too, but I still got up the next day at 7am for more adventures!).

The CEP was everything I'd ever wanted it to be, but so much more - when you apply, you think of hugging Mickey Mouse, basking in the Florida sun before Cinderella's castle, watching the shows, eating the food, and wearing your cast member name-tag with pride.

You don't yet know about the friendships you'll make from all over the world and how much you'll come to care for these people, so instantly and uncomplicatedly. Those are the people who make the program - the ones who you spend your days off with consuming scary levels of sugar, the ones who visit you at work to take goofy photos in your costumes, and the ones you cry with on the final night as you watch Happily Ever After together and realise you've arrived at a very bittersweet ending to the most magical experience you'll ever be a part of.