For three years Disney fan Sarah Rachul had been waiting for this moment.
And unfortunately, she’s received a ton of hate online for it.
Rachul, who operates a TikTok account called @everydayisdisney, posted a video of her getting emotional while visiting Disney World in Orlando earlier this month.
Specifically, she was emotional over the moment of hugging Goofy, whom she says was her grandfather’s favorite character.
She captioned the video, “now, I no longer have my papa to go to Disney with, but I do have Goofy! And those hugs make me feel just a little closer to my papa each time.”
Rachul explained her emotions to the New York Post saying, “I was surprised by my own reaction to getting to hug [Goofy] again. The tears came out of nowhere. All the cast members there were wonderful too and Goofy gave me a long hug and a lot of special interaction because he could see it meant a lot to me.”
Unfortunately after the video was posted, Rachul immediately began receiving a ton of backlash, with people telling her that as a 27-year-old woman, she needed to “grow up” and not get emotional over something like meeting a character at Disney World.
Of course, Rachul had plenty of support.
In the end, Rachul knows she can handle the criticism, and that while she “expected” some backlash, she was also raised to have “thick skin.”
However, she does worry about the effects cyberbullying could have on younger generations.
Shen says, “I dug into some of these video duets/stitches and comments and lot of the people behind the account are in middle school/high school/college. These are really formative years for learning how to treat others and I’m concerned for how brazen people have become online when criticizing strangers.”
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