Good morning all you DI fans, Friends, and random souls lost in the internet!

If you don’t already know what DI is check out this link to their website, but it would serve you to know that DI can’t really be described in words. I’ve been doing this for 2 years now, and I’ve been trying to sum it all up in a few sentences ever since I asked the question…

“What is D.I.!?”

If you want to fully understand, I suggest checking out my journey from the beginning. From regionals grade 8, to provincials grade 8, to regionals grade 9, to now.

This year I was in an amazing group with Kiera, Emerson, Taylor and Nik. I was really pleased as we all work well together, and there has been a surmountable amount less drama and aggravation compared to last year (see posts linked above).

Day 1.

It all started in January, solving challenges, delevoping our group and preparing for the Reigonal Tournament.

Day 100000?

Skip to the beginning of our story today, we are done regionals and in the aftermath of chaos are proud of our accomplishments. Before we start working on our improvements, we will plan what we each need to do, and put systems to track our progress for the next tournament.

Special Effect burn Chart day 2

This is a burn chart, it’s what we used to track our progress and to visually express how much we still needed to get done.

These are some of the estimates of how much we would improve in Provincials, we call them our Improvement charts, and they are extremely important in our learning process. Imagine trying to meet your friends at a caffe, without knowing where it is, or what it’s called!? That’s like trying to improve without some form of representation to remind yourself where to focus your efforts.

Doom’s Day

Needless to say we did all the work.. and even more needless but very important to me, is that it took a toll! I gave myself too much work, and not enough time to do it in, I overestimated my abilities, and for that I got an average of 6hours of sleep per night, which over time accumulated, not to mention that the first night of that crazy week on a completely unrelated matter I got a whopping 4 hours! Woopdie doo.

Now that you have a good idea of my mind power, let’s reflect. We had the whole day to go around and watch performances, practice, and last minute spiffing. I saw some amazing performances, like that of the grade 8 improv team 1-800-IMPROV-4-KIDS, or the grade 8 Medical mistery team Humerus. Sadly my performance Schedule interfered with my Friend’s performances, so I couldn’t see many of theirs, but I saw as many as I could!

Learning and Peronal Growth

Even though I probably am not going to have another growth spirt, I find myself always growing. As I grow sometimes I forget things about myself that didn’t used to be acknowledged.

At the beginning of this year, I set a personal growth plan, and a big part of that plan was to shape the part of me that’s a leader, the part that makes other people feel heard and an important member of our team. During D.I. I remembered and worked on that, but after the spring break I forgot about it. Today while talking about grades, my teacher Ms.Willemse told me that she saw that part of me emerging, and it put the whole thing in perspective.

As a whole I feel really grateful that I get to learn from experiences like this. If you are ever thinking to yourself “why am I in a program that is so hard on me?” Or “is it healthy to expect so much of myself?” Just think about where you started, and you will see your answer clear as day!

(Of course much clearer than the average day in Deep Cove – the rainiest place on earth)   ;P