Page 79 - Words

Personal Growth Lee Ying Yee, Krinsky 6D (2016-2017)

Last summer, I was employed as a costumed character performer of
Minnie Mouse in Disneyland. At first, I considered it as nothing more
than a job. As we all know when we grow up, the friendly animals and
princes are only alive in fairytales. Yet, the summer job experiences last year
changed my mind completely.

Since normally the parade starts at noon, I would get dressed before
10 o’clock. Putting on the costume had never been an easy job as it was so
heavy. It often took me a while to get prepared and I had to wait behind
the big gate to the streets. All of the costumed character performers would
get on the trucks and wait patiently for the parade to start. During the
parade, we would all wave to the children and dance with the music. For
about 3 minutes, we would all leave the cars and interact with the kids by
shaking their hands or inviting them to form a little circle to dance. This
was a typical parade every day. We would take a break after the parade and
go on to the streets again. The visitors were always keen to take photos with
us. As I was the performer of Minnie Mouse, it was common to see little
girls surrounding me.

One of the bad things about this job is the lack of fresh air inside
the costume. I always started sweating after 10 minutes, especially when
the temperature was high during summer. Another thing that I dislike
is that some of the visitors did not show any respect. Some mainlanders
would pull the tail of Minnie Mouse. Once I was pulled by the tail, and if
the assistant of the performers had not helped, I would have fallen to the

With Pride, We Stride 79