Destination Improvisation

The time has come where some PLP students have been waiting all year for this moment and others can’t believe it’s already here, with that I mean Destination Imagination. If you’ve read my previous posts about this tournament you’d know how I feel, I never look forward to this event but once it has finished, a side of me loves it and I always learn more about myself. Even though a part of me enjoys this tournament, this year I still went in with a negative mindset. Jokes aside, DI is one of the best opportunities to show who you are and mainly, show your growth as a learner and person. 

The different categories in DI really just mean there is something for everybody, but this year I chose something way out of my comfort zone, Improv. I’ve always been the type of person that works best on a schedule and when I know what to do, but with improv that isn’t possible so I felt like I was thrown into the deep end. However, I had Annie, Ethan, Jakub, and Quinn by my side and the five us of created what’s probably the most unique improv group to date. Although our challenge was improv there were still some things we needed to do, our job was to research 10 different festivals from all around the world and incorporate them into our skit. We’d also have a goal and fork in the road drawn at random and it was our choice if our character completed the goal, to enhance the skit we were allowed a set of 10 cardboard boxes. So now that we knew what we needed to do, we actually had to do it, and this was the part we struggled with. 

On paper improv seems like it’s the easiest challenge, you don’t have to come up with a script or make anything and knowing this, we were all much more relaxed than the first time we were in DI, too relaxed. Once we did get moving we found out that improvising was much harder than expected, none of us really knew what to do, we were all just standing there waiting for someone to say something. Our practices weren’t anywhere near tournament ready but I’m actually thankful for these disastrous performances. It made me realize how important teamwork is and knowing everyone you’re working with. I’ve worked in a team environment for a very large portion of my life and I usually consider myself to be quite good at working with others, however, I just didn’t feel the same with this group. I’m not at all saying this is my group’s fault but really it’s mine, I should’ve made an effort to understand how everyone works sooner. As I said, we were one of the most unique improv groups there can be and none of us really work in the same ways so recognizing how everyone operates really is the challenge. With that said I learnt a lot about the four others around me, we finally got to a stage where we could convincingly tell a story and perform it. 

Looking back on our performance there were quite a few things I wished we spent longer on, the main thing being incorporating the festival into our skit. When I watch our act back I notice that we don’t really mention much about the festival which ultimately comes down to one thing, lack of practice. I’d be lying if I said we practiced the Songkran festival over and over and it’s something I wished we changed. I guess you could say we were unlucky not pulling Songkran in our dress rehearsals but we can’t blame the things we can’t control. Another thing that we could’ve improved on is our communication. In our two minute prep time, we didn’t really discuss the whole plot as a group, we’d have little side conversations resulting in us not knowing what each other’s roles were. By no means was our communication bad but personally, my best growth comes from when I’m harsh and picky so I feel that we could’ve done better if we worked longer on those two things. 

Unfortunately, we did come third out of four teams but there are still some positives that came out of it. We learnt a lot about each other and went from being just a group to a family, we figured out what roles suit each person best and used that to our advantage. But what I’m most proud of in my group but mainly myself is the ability to just embrace and enjoy it. I’ve always struggled to show emotion and really just have fun in things like this, so seeing photos of me with a smile on my face while performing just puts another smile on my face when reflecting. 

At first, I thought Destination Imagination was just some childish event that had no purpose but after competing in it for a second time I just have my teachers to thank. This is something I would never see myself doing but I appreciate being pushed out of my comfort zone to become a better person. I’ve always wondered what really is the point of DI but today that wonder turns into knowledge.