I am 24 years old and have recently graduated with a degree in Journalism, yet I am currently working an hourly job at Walt Disney World. When I tell most of my friends and family what I am doing now, they all ask me the same question. Why? Why am I working an hourly job when I have a degree and could be making so much more money? Let me tell you why.

One day at work I wasn’t really feeling the magic. It was hot and humid, like really hot and humid. I had an early shift that day and I had worked pretty late the night before. I was just plain tired. I was standing outside Princess Fairytale Hall in Fantasyland when I noticed a pair of Mickey Ears on the ground. I quickly scanned the area to see if anyone looked like they were looking for something they might have dropped. I didn’t notice anything abnormal so I took the ears to the lost and found in my area. After I dropped them off, I didn’t think anything else of it.

An hour or two later, a family came up to me outside Mickey’s Philhar Magic and told me they think they left two pairs of mouse ears in the theater. They told me one pair was the sparkly kind and the other pair was the furry kind. I went into the theater and asked the cast member in there if any ears had been found recently. He said, “Yes!” and handed me a pair of sparkly ears. I told him how the family had said they had misplaced two pairs. He said that the one pair was all he had seen but I was welcome to come look myself when the current show was over and the lights came back on. I approached the family with the one pair of ears. The little girl they belonged to was so happy and gave me a huge hug. The parents then asked their other daughter if she was sure she had the ears inside the theater. She said she didn’t know and I remembered the ears I had found on the ground earlier that morning. I asked if they had been over at Princess Fairytale Hall earlier that morning and they said yes. I quickly put two and two together and quickly went to see if the ears I had found that morning were still in the lost and found. The ears were still there.

When I approached the family with the ears they were so happy. The little girls started jumping up and down and the mom started crying. The dad gave me a hug and told me, “You just saved my vacation.” The little girls looked at each other and said, “That was magic!”

That day, I learned that doing something so simple can make a huge impact on people’s vacations. I was just doing my job, but I made a difference to this family.So when people ask me why I work this job, I will tell them this story. The simplest, littlest things can make a bigger impact than you will ever realize.