I had thought about creating a blog about my upcoming adventures and others had told me I should as well so I'm going to do my absolute best to keep this as updated as possible. Please bare with me as I am learning this along the way and feel free to comment whenever.
To start things off, I'm going to explain the process of how I got to where I am. I went on my first cruise when I was in 4th grade and absolutely loved it. I said to myself, I'd love to work on a cruise ship some day. When I was 9 years old that sounded like just another one of my dreams I'd like to reach. It went along with becoming a professional dancer, a teacher, and now to work on a cruise ship. If you would have told me when I was 9 years old that I would only accomplish one of them, I wouldn't have believed you. Today, I'm perfectly alright only reaching one of those and the fact that it is working on a cruise ship makes it that much more okay. On a side note, I do feel that I have and will reach those other dreams of mine in some way. I have been a teacher and a mentor for many young lives through The First Tee program and I'm pretty sure that my dance skills will come in handy once I'm on board my ship! Anyway, when I went off to college my dreams of becoming a teacher became distant because calculus and I didn't get along very well. I switched into the Hospitality Management Program and couldn't be more happy with that decision. Once I got involved in the program, I knew that this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I love being able to assist others and enhance a guest's experience. I enjoy everything about the industry, but I found myself wanting to do the things that not everyone thought of. I wasn't crazy about the restaurant aspect, the hotel side I could handle, but I really wanted to do something sports related, event related or even my dream... work on a cruise ship! I still would like to do something event or sports related when I'm done with the cruise industry, but I'm going to give this all I can for as long as I feel appropriate.
Graduating in May, I decided that I wanted to take the summer off from looking for a job to spend some time with my family. I started looking for jobs in September after returning from a trip to Kansas to see my second family! I found some awesome internships that I applied for and I also applied with Carnival Cruise Lines. The only company I heard back from was Carnival. I sent my application in and was contacted a couple of days later asking for my resume. A couple of days after that I received an email stating that I would be called for a phone interview. I was beyond excited at this point that I'm on my way to reaching a long time dream! The recruiter who called me was super sweet and very nice. She made the conversation very comfortable and told me that I had helped her day end well because I was so excited about this. We had a chat about what life would be like if I got the job, if I was comfortable being away from home, and what the rest of the process would be like if I was to continue. Ultimately in the end she offered me the chance to go to Atlanta for the interview process! At this point I'm so excited that things were going so well and things were slowly becoming real.
I flew to Atlanta at the beginning of November just for a quick overnight trip. On interview day, I was surprised to find myself somewhat relaxed. Of course, I was a little nervous because this interview could decide things for me for a while. I think I was so comfortable because for the first time in a while I was confident that I was capable of doing this. My education and my experience over my life time had gotten me to where I was and I had nothing to be worried about. I was prepared for this and the only person that could mess things up was me. I was not going to let that happen! I knew that I was just going to be myself and show them that I was perfect for this job. So the interview took most of the morning and then the afternoon was just for the one-on-one interviews. The morning was more of an information session along with an activity that really tests your personality. While I waited for my one-on-one, I was with many of the other candidates enjoying lunch talking to the people that were going in and coming out of their interviews. I felt that it was going to be very laid back going in and the more people that came out of the room proved my feelings to be true. When it was finally my turn to go inside I was already at ease. I basically just had a normal conversation with a few questions thrown in there but it was still very relaxed. I walked out of there feeling very confident and hopeful.
I flew back to California that same day and was anxious from the moment I left the interview room. I just wanted to know if I had made it or not. Well, I didn't have to wait long because I got an email the next evening. It came at a good time because about 10 minutes before I received the email K-State had lost their football game to Oklahoma State in a heart breaker. I was instantly in a better mood after reading my exciting news! Celebrating started immediately!
Since then I completed everything I've needed to and sent in my paperwork to get the hiring process started. I sent my paper work in between the middle and end of November and I've been waiting to hear anything ever since. I'm really hoping to hear something within this next coming week, but then again I've been hoping that for the last month or so too. That is where I'm at currently and I will continue to update everyone as often as I can. I will also be doing my best to send out emails periodically. I will warn you now, that some of the same stuff might be on here and in my emails so I apologize now for the repetitiveness that might occur.
I hope that you all enjoy reading about my experiences and stories. I will try and post pictures on here as well as often as I can. I am beyond excited to start working and find out my ship information. I hope to have some more good news soon.
Until then, keep crossing your fingers please! :)
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