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For most of his adult life, Michael Bowen lived a regular life as he thought was expected of him. He studied at a university and a Bible school and worked as a minister in New Jersey.
But in his 40s, just when he thought his life was going to go down the same way until his retirement, he made a decision that surprised even him. He left it all to drive buses at Walt Disney World.
“I went into this line of work thinking it would make someone else happy and didn’t really think about what would make me happy,” Bowen, now 51, told Business Insider.
The vacation that changed Bowen’s life
For years, Bowen worked at a small church that could not pay a full-time salary, so he took a part-time job as a school bus driver to pay the bills.
In 2017, on his trip to Disney World, he sat by a pool on the last day of his vacation, dreading the return to New Jersey’s stormy weather. “I felt I had to make some kind of change, or I was going to sentence myself to a miserable life,” he said.
That’s when he had the idea that would change his life: Disney also needed bus drivers. “I could actually do that,” he recalled thinking.
A dream job at Disney World
Getting hired was not easy. The process took months, and he needed a Florida driver’s license before receiving an offer. He moved to Florida in January 2020, at 44, and finally started the job on February 15.
For the first time in his life, he had a stable job with benefits such as paid time off, retirement savings, and health insurance.
But in May 2022, after a difficult divorce, he left Disney and moved to Oregon, where he drove a city bus. “It was the most gut-wrenching feeling that I had ever had,” he said about leaving.
Life gives second chances, and he went back to Disney World’s “magic”
In Oregon was where he met his wife through his YouTube channel about Disney, “Incognito Mouse.” In 2025, they moved to Florida together, and after waiting almost a year for an opening, Bowen returned to Disney as a bus driver in April 2026.
He admits the job is not seen as prestigious, but small moments make it worth it, like a little boy who proudly showed him two toy buses before boarding. “Little things like this just make my day,” he said.
His advice is simple: “Life is too short. If you are not happy or you want to do something else, you have to make it happen.”