My name is Pete Dalby. I grew up in a small village in East Yorkshire, plenty of ability at school, but no drive or motivation and apathetically ambled my way through to complete my first year of A Levels until I realised they weren’t for me. I left school and completed a more vocational qualification in Business and then spent a year working (serving, talking with and handling different people) and drinking in my local pub. I was having a great time, but knew there was more to see especially looking at some of the people who had been doing the very same thing for years (some of whom are no longer with us).

I harboured a dream to backpack around Australia until an ex girlfriend’s mum nagged me to apply to work in Walt Disney World. My ex girlfriend was out there having the time of her life and she knew I would too, if I could get out there. I applied to stop the nagging and carried on planning my trip to Sydney. A few weeks later, I was invited to an interview in Birmingham to be a Cultural Representative of the UK working in the EPCOT Center in Walt Disney World in Florida. Exciting! I left for Birmingham in plenty of time, my mum came with me for company and morale support, but if you’ve even driven around Birmingham city centre without sat nav, you’ll know how much or a nightmare it is! My interview time came and went and I was stressed out (I hate being late for anything), I couldn’t believe it, I’d blown my chance. I pulled over to gather my thoughts and figure out how to get back home and a lady was walking towards my car on the footpath. I asked her if she had any idea where the college was that were hosting the interviews and she said yes, it’s right there! I bolted from the car and ran into the room where a group presentation was happening, I sat down and thankfully it looked like I’d gotten away with it! I had my interview, which went really well, using my customer service experience and various different jobs I’d had since I was 14 to navigate the questions and build a rapport, I headed for home with a good feeling.

2 weeks later my dad shouted up the stairs, “There’s an American lady on the phone for you!” What the hell!! A Walt Disney World head of recruitment lady called to offer me a job and said they needed me to fly out in a few weeks’ time! I tied up a few loose ends at home, said goodbye to my mates, my dad drove me to Manchester Airport, we said our goodbyes, my dad had tears in his eyes, one of the few times I ever saw him cry.

I sat on a plane on the runway, aged 20, leaving everything behind to spend a year in Florida in the USA, a country I’d only seen on the TV. I was nervous, I was sad, I was so excited. The most impactful, influential and pivotal decision of my life had been taken and was underway. I’d asked at the check in desk if there was anyone else heading out to work for Disney and if there was, could they seat me next to one? They did, I sat next to a great guy, we got to know each other drinking gin and tonics over the Atlantic at 32,000 ft, the beginning of our adventure and first in a long line of incredible people, from all over the world that I’m still lucky enough to call friends 26 years later who I’m fortunate enough to have shared some of the most memorable experiences of my life.

I came home from the best year of my life with a cargo ship full of experiences and memories, some truly special friends, a wonderful girlfriend, who I adored (and still do to this day, she’s my amazing wife now) and $70, which was my share of the PlayStation from our apartment. Some people that worked out there came home with 10s of thousands of pounds that they’d saved in tips, I spent all mine having the time of my life! Travelling around the US, Canada and Mexico. Do I regret not bringing any savings back? Not a chance. Disney instilled a level of customer service and a desire to help people and exceed people’s expectations at every opportunity that is still with me to this day.

I came back home as a different person. Suddenly, all my parents’ nagging and moaning through my teenage years, made total sense to me, I appreciated them like you wouldn’t believe and realised now how lucky I was. Coming back to a small village in East Yorkshire in a cold and dark February after having the year of my life in the sun was like hitting a brick wall. I didn’t know it at the time, but this was the start of a long bout of depression and anxiety. It was so crippling at times, I used to take beta blockers before seeing friends and family. My nervous system was shot to pieces. I read my way out of it, a self help book on anxiety and why our bodies react that way was a total game changer. It all made total sense. My nervous system heeled itself and I’ve whilst there are ups and downs depending on what’s going on in my life, today I’m comfortable in my own skin, I regularly present in front large customers, conferences and webinars at work, for one of the largest IT companies in the world.

Nicole and I didn’t really know what to do next after Disney. We figured we should head to University, but my qualifications were not enough to get me onto a degree, I’d have to do an HND first. Undeterred, I wrote a letter to the university asking if they’d kindly consider me for the degree level, even though I didn’t have the qualifications. I wrote all about my year in Florida, how it had impacted me and how I was now ready to study my arse off, it was time to grab the reins of my life, I now had a purpose. They agreed and I was now a degree student. I did work hard, if fact I won Student of the Year for years 1 and 2 at an awards ceremony at University for gaining the highest grades out of the 2 degree courses, around 70 students. Would I recommend a year or two out before Uni? I think you know the answer to that one! I graduated from university with Nicole, having spent our summers working at Disneyland Paris and an amazing cafe on Cape Cod, plus a semester studying in Barcelona where it was cheaper to live than Birmingham! After graduation we backpacked around the world, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, 6 months in Sydney (finally!) where we got engaged, New Zealand, California and home, for good this time, our travelling days were over, for now, time to settle down, things were getting serious!

26 years later, we live in Buckinghamshire with our 2 teenagers, Labrador and cat surrounded by, you guessed it, amazing people (I ask myself often whether we’re just lucky or whether it’s the fact that we put ourselves out there and get to know people). There’s not a day that goes by that I’m not grateful for stepping on to that plane at Manchester Airport and heading to Florida for a year. I certainly wouldn’t be sitting here grateful for how my life has turned out. I wouldn’t change a thing, apart from bringing back my beloved parents. I cruelly and heartbreakingly lost both of them aged 67 within 3 years of each other, before I turned 40. Life is a rollercoaster for sure, I’ve had some epic highs but those were certainly the 2 lowest of desperate lows, for me. Robbed of the opportunity for them to enjoy and witness our children grow into the amazing people they are today but grateful they played such an impactful and profound role in my life and still do to this day, with what the morale fibre they ingrained in me and the memories that will live long with me.

We’re not here for long, make the most of every day. Grasp any opportunity that comes your way, create your own luck, see the best in people, surround yourself with positive, inspiring people (radiators), cut out the negative, naysayers (drains). Travel! See the world, meet and spend time with people from different cultures to broaden your horizons. When you travel, it’s easier to meet like minded people because they’ve taken a similar path. Speak to the stranger next to you in the coffee shop, especially if they look different to you! Break down your preconceptions. You never know what you might learn and the new friend you might make. Put your phone down! Life is about experiences, it’s about people, go and see it, go and do it.

Just because society encourages you to do your GCSEs, then your A Levels, go to University and start working at 21, doesn’t mean you have to follow that path. Think outside the box, life begins on the edge of your comfort zone. There’s not just one way, there’s your way. There’s another way.