Destination Imagination 2022

This year I was in DI. This statement demands one big question for most people; what is DI?

DI is short for Destination Imagination. “The Destination Imagination global community is united by a core belief that when students have the freedom to grow and collaborate without boundaries, their confidence explodes and the world opens up to them in new ways. We enable this transformation by providing challenges rooted in STEAM subjects that inspire unique solutions through the use of the creative process.” –[1]

This year, I was part of the improv challenge at DI, along with my teammates Annie, Ethan, Logan, and Quinn. Together we had to research and create improv skits based on 10 festivals which we could select from a list that was created by Destination Imagination. Within our skits we had to accomplish a goal that would be given to us and thus be a variable while also facing and presumably overcoming a challenge or ‘fork in the road’. For this, we were allowed to use 10 boxes (like the ones you put your furniture in when you’re moving).

So, what did we do?

At the start of our preparation for DI, we decided that each of us would research 2 festivals and summarize the important facts about them in order to increase efficiency. We then explained our festivals to the other members of our group and started practicing our improv.

First, our improv was quite bad with us often resorting to effectuating stereotypes and not creating thorough or entertaining storylines. It took us quite some practice before we could improvise in a way that we felt had told a story. After that, it was more onto enhancing our improv abilities. During these practices we would have a goal that we would try to achieve throughout the whole skit and get a ‘fork in the road’ in the middle. We tried to replicate the event itself. Although we were trying to replicate the challenge, we didn’t use boxes in our improv because we only had 11 boxes.

DI – the day of the challenge

Then came DI. This year it was held in St. George’s, a private school in Dunbar, Vancouver, BC. One additional task was to take a picture of our decorated transportation vehicle. For it, I created a banner and we also included the sign we had made for the challenge.

When we arrived, we packed all of our stuff out of our cars and transported it into the gym where we discussed strategy. Then we were called up and we went to preform. Our performance was satisfactory but I did notice some shortcomings which I will discuss later.

Immediately after our main challenge came our instant challenge which we were alright in.

How did we do?

For the main challenge there were a few things we should’ve done differently.

• First off, we should’ve picked an exact location to be doing this nationwide festival in.
• Secondly, in retrospect, our lack of practice with the boxes was quite apparent. We should’ve definitely used the boxes more.
• Thirdly, we should’ve spent more time on the little things that, in the end, define the play itself.

All in all, I feel that I learned important improvisational skills. I also think that I learned some leadership and group motivation skills since a lot of the responsibility of this project was placed on the groups. The things I have learned in this project will stick with me for a long time.

Thank you for reading and I’ll be seeing you, later.