Growing Up Optional
By Heather M. Leber
I can feel it. My inner child screaming to be let out as I walk through the Orlando airport, getting closer to the Magical Express. I’m here. I’m finally here. I slow down for my family to catch up to me while I put on my Magic Band for the first time. It’s been seventeen years since we were last here. I have an idea of what’s in store, but little do I know what I’ll learn from this experience.
I firmly believe everyone has a inner child – some of us have tried to keep that inner child locked away. Because of this, we lose site of the magic in our day to day lives. But, there is something about Walt Disney World that unlocks that room the inner child is and allows them out. The parks are outlet for all of us, old or young. To many people grow up, leaving behind the inner child as we transition into what we are told is adulthood filled with responsibilities that often times are not what we want. But, if you take a trip to the Magic Kingdom as an adult, you are given a chance to relive that childhood, to allow that inner child a chance to be set free, to explore and to breathe again.
Growing up, my family traveled to Walt Disney World exactly twice. Once, when I was just a little tyke of only three years old and again in 1999 when everyone was hyped for the new millennium. I have one vague memory of watching my dad go down Splash Mountain from the first trip. The second trip I was eight, going on nine, and hold a few more memories. It took seventeen years for me and my family to return, but the summer of 2016 we returned to the most magical place on Earth, bringing home a lesson that I will always remember.
In some ways, it was like I had never been the parks. The rides I remember have either been changed or no longer exist. Star Tours is a new story. Body Wars is no more. Both my brother and I remember taking down poachers in Kilimanjaro Safaris back in the nineties. There is no denying that the parks have undergone extensive changes in the last seventeen years. This made for a unique trip; a trip where I could unlock the lesson of allowing my inner child out.
Being in the parks allowed for me to be child again. It gave me a chance to eat sweets for dinner. It allowed me to enjoy the rush of adrenaline from crossing over to the “Twilight Zone” and taking on Yetis in the Himalayan Mountains. It gave me moments to be quiet and reflect on my own goals, dreams and aspirations while fireworks lit up the night sky around me. It reminded me of those memories that fostered my love of story telling as I flew over London on my way to Neverland.
There is so much to say about returning to Walt Disney World after seventeen years. One week in the parks is not enough to do, see, experience everything that the Disneys’ first conceived. Taking on the parks as a twenty-something was, in a lot of ways, a dream come true. It gave me a chance to let go of adult responsibilities and have fun. While it’s a joy to experience the parks as a kid, it is amazing to see it through the eyes of an adult. It allows you appreciate the details the Imagineers put into the experiences that simply create magic.
Magic continues to exist at any age. These moments often appear without warning. One night as my mom and I were exiting Peter Pan’s Flight the finale fireworks for Wishes erupted just over our heads. Being directly behind the castle for this allowed for an experience that we never thought to have. It was a result of timing, a moment that amazed the both of us. Watching the shower of stars raining down in the night sky from a different vantage point is one of those unexpected magical moments that I won’t soon forget.
Returning to Walt Disney World after nearly two decades, I came to learn something: even in day to day life when you are expected to be an adult, it’s okay to allow your inner child to live. Those moments of childhood bliss, while they thrive in the Magic Kingdom, are in our daily lives. Walt Disney World
allowed me to revive my inner child. Visiting the parks, allowed for my inner child to wake up, to breathe again, to stretch it’s legs. Walt Disney Worldis a place to live a dreams that are lost as we transition from being a kid to an adult. The magic is alive in everyday life, we just have to allow our inner child to see it. As Walt Disney once said, “Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is optional.”
Heather M. Leber is a volunteer writer for WDWKingdom and goes by @TheRebel17 here on the forums. If you enjoyed this article please comment below and say hi to Heather! If you want to be a volunteer blogger and writer for WDWKingdom please us the contact us form.
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