Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust

It comes as no surprise that my family loves Disney World. I get the question constantly with eyes rolled. “Y’all are going there again?” My answer will always be the same, “Yes, we love it there.” And we do. I cannot really describe why or how this addiction to WDW began but it is strong. I thought that maybe my boys would grow tired of WDW after a few years, but they are actually more excited than I am when a trip is coming. When folks realize that I don’t care that I am judged for my love of WDW, the next question I get is “Do you not get bored doing the same thing every time?” And my answer to that is we always find something new and exciting to do with each trip.

This summer we went on a tour in Magic Kingdom. These private tours are offered for a “behind the scenes” look at how Disney is done. When we signed in for our tour, we were in a room with another family who also was signed up for one of the tours. Our tour was to start at 9am and theirs as 9:30-they arrived way early. Our tour guide came out and the other family was a tad frustrated that we were being led on our tour first-they clearly felt like appointments were mere suggestions. Being that we were at the happiest place on earth and I had not had my Starbucks fix yet, we happily agreed to pass on some pixie dust and allow this family to go on their tour first with our tour guide.  About 10 minutes later the second tour guide, Emanuel, arrived and greeted us with the warmest smile. It didn’t even begin to faze him that we were not the family that he was expecting.  Emanuel, dressed in khakis, a long sleeve pressed button down white shirt, and signature WDW plaid vest (all in July-mind you) quickly became one of those people you just knew you were going to like.  He took us on a fantastic tour that not once bored my sarcastic husband, inquisitive me (not once was he bothered by my questions), or two totally different personality teenagers. In fact, we were all engaged in every word. He took us to a part of the underground Disney that wasn’t part of the tour (unless he tells everyone that), he gave great detail about each thing we were seeing. He didn’t just simply herd us around, we were his mission that day and his love and passion for WDW showed through each step taken with him during our tour.  I was impressed with his knowledge, his historical facts about WDW were better than a wiki. I loved how he could answer my questions, make a corny joke to make my husband laugh, and make fun of adults so my kids would be engaged with him seamlessly.  Our tour was supposed to be 2 hours long. It lasted 3 hours and it felt like 5 minutes. 

When we returned to the starting point, another guide was waiting on a tour and I jokingly said that I hoped he was as good as Emanuel. This guide looked at me with all seriousness and said, “He’s the best. We all want to be like Emanuel.” I started thinking about Emanuel the other day.  I would love if someone would “want to be like” me. I would find that the most complimentary thing a person could say about me -although I would quickly give them about 100 reasons why they wouldn’t want to be like me. I also wondered what our schools would be like if we had 100 Emanuels.  What would it be like to have 100 people who would just roll with the circumstances unconcerned that things were not what you expected? How awesome would it be if we all had so much passion for our jobs that we each wanted to be like each other?  How awesome would our school be if we celebrated learning with and from each other in PLC, PD, or just by simply sharing our own readings that we were happy that these lasted longer than we expected? How awesome would our school be if we knew that if we didn’t have the answer, the person beside us would help us find the answer-if they didn’t already know it themselves? How awesome would our school be if everyone could fully engage a diverse crowd so seamlessly that everyone learned?

What could happen in a school with 100 Emanuels who are genuine, invested in their work, have passion, learn a little each  more each day, take pride in doing things right, engage the people they serve, and do so with a magical spirit? Are you an Emanuel?  All you need is a little faith, trust, and pixie dust!