Are you engaged in medieval warfare? Are you sieging a castle but you just can’t knock those darn walls down? Well, have I got the program for you! It’s called Destination Imagination!

DI is a worldwide event in which unsuspecting children compete to see which group can come up with the most innovative solution. Every year, there are a few challenges to choose from: engineering, fine arts, technical, and science. This year, I chose engineering, where my group, consisting of Ronan, Callum, Mackenzie, Nate and Monica, were tasked with making a modular device to launch a beanbag.

I didn’t know exactly what a modular device was until this project, so let me fill you in. For DI, the modular device needs to be small, and needs to launch a beanbag in two configurations. We also had to create a story about an ordinary person where everything is going to plan until a catalyst occurs.

Building this modular device wasn’t too difficult. We got some scrap wood, and constructed our machine. The hard part was actually making it launch well. In the end, it never really did launch too well, but it was our first time building a weapon of war, so you can’t be too harsh.

We made our story about Dan the Dog Whisperer and his dog Cuddles, who get trapped in space and have to find a way to get back down. 

After we got the catapult and story finished, we didn’t do all that much in preparation for the tournament. So, when the tournament came, we were slightly unprepared for acting out our story and none of us are very confident in our acting abilities.

On the day of the tournament, we had everything pretty much under control. We made a few props and acted out our story. And, even though we came in last in the engineering challenge, we did what Mr Hughes asked of us: kicked the private school’s teeth in! Oh, he meant win? I guess we shouldn’t have beat them up in the bathroom then.

So, would I do DI again? Not if I weren’t forced to. That being said, I am excited to be forced to do it again. Why? Because DI actually teaches you some pretty valuable life skills. You learn to work in a group, even when the going gets rough. You are forced to put aside your differences and collaborate with each other. And, we get to improve upon our acting  and catapult’s performance. It also teaches you how to make a medieval weapon, just in case you’re ever engaged in siege warfare. But, of course, the real destination was not our imagination, but the friends we made along the way. 🙌🏻