”Dalfkdjsf[lkehwafikldsn.”

”hgbjyjhgjnynj.”

”rteaohfnjvawefjbv;jwhrbfekldeawuhbvdkjweiohskdnsdfdsfdsafdsfdddddddddd.”

Imagine the noise of me whacking my head on my keyboard.

…Repeatedly.

Destination Imagination. It crept up on me again.

If you want to catch up on my experiences with DI, you can check out my older post here!

Hello there and welcome to another blog post! I thought I left DI in 2021, but I was wrong. This year’s competition was way different from last year’s. Instead of recording our solution in a video, we had to present it live… right in front of the appraisers. 

In some areas, it wasn’t as hard as last year… but there were new things to worry about. 

Anyways, let’s get personal!

(Confused? It’ll all make sense later.)

It all began on one fateful day in… October? Honestly, I’m terrible with time. I thought I had more time to emotionally prepare myself for Destination Imagination, but I was also wrong.

Destination Imagination was briefly mentioned… and I knew what that meant. 

Soon enough, I found myself signing on to this year’s challenge. I originally wanted to do the art challenge again, but I got science instead. Although it wasn’t my cup of tea, it’s cool to try something new. (No singing this time!) 

For our challenge, we had to look close! We learned the science of microscopy and discovered some interesting microscope techniques.

I was grouped with a couple of my classmates: Ariane, Teva, Theryn, and Julian. They are awesome people and it was easy working with them! Go check out their blogs too!

Also, we had to decide on a name for our magnificent crew. We brainstormed in our team Basecamp, and agreed on “Up Close and PERSONAL!” (We didn’t mean to rip off the movie…)

During our Loon Lake Trip, we became pros at our challenge. (What is this, a crossover episode?)

We were able to build our teamwork and agree on the foundations of our solution. Previously, we had spent a lot of time in the “Recognize” and “Imagine” stages. Looking back, I wish we moved forward quicker and started the “Collaborate & Initiate” processes sooner. We could have spent that time enforcing our solution and making it more reliable. 

Well, at least there’s always next year!

We did a lot of brainstorming. In this process, we came up with tons of cool ideas. However, we had no idea how to execute them. We managed to use a couple in our final solution, but we had to scrap most of them.

Personally, I believe this was a very good learning opportunity, because I struggle with prioritizing ideas. I find it frustrating when I get a great idea, but I don’t have the skill level to execute it. In the future, I want to have the courage to turn down things I know I can’t achieve. I want to accept that I’m still learning and mistakes are inevitable. 

In the end, the only thing that matters is how I grow from those mistakes.

As Ms. Frizzle always says; “Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!”

I had some wild ideas. Somehow, I wanted to create a large-scale zoetrope (or phenakistoscope) WITH a Dark Crystal inspired puppet. Although it was a rad idea (at least in my head), I don’t think I could try it at my skill level. Too bad, maybe next year…

Anyways, once we finally settled, we had to start building! We managed to work very well with each other. We each maximized our unique skills to collaborate and diversify our work.

Here’s a slideshow of the process:

Theryn worked with the technical aspects and created some unique contraptions. I still have no idea how any of it works! Teva is good at leadership and timekeeping. A procrastinator (like me) could only wish to possess such powers. Julian surprised us all with his musical genius. His scores are incredible! Finally, Ariane and I worked on the set design. She has amazing painting and design skills. Her ideas are always very cool. I used my animation knowledge to add movement to our digital backdrop. 

In the end, we combined our abilities, tried something new, and had fun! It didn’t matter if we completely flopped our performance! We knew we worked hard and grew as a team!

Also, since I’m super proud of my “puffballs”, I’ll reflect on the process of making them as well. Since we were uses the Polarization Microscopy technique for our backdrops, I wanted to use a lot of colour.

I was inspired by this microscopic image:

Originally, I had no idea how to show this in a set design. BUT THEN, I remembered the paper flowers I made awhile back.  I felt that I would be able to display the bursts of colour AND make it visual for the audience. I used food dye and cheap coffee filters to make them. 

Although the process took awhile (I had to dry them individually with a hairdryer) they were fun to make. The colours were especially satisfying to see. 

Last minute, we realized we didn’t have a sign yet! We also recycled some of our leftover puffballs and leaves to create our team sign. Like our team name, we wanted to make our design play off the Destination Imagination (Up Close) official logo. I’m very happy with it and I think it looks very snazzy. 

Although we had our solution up and running, we still needed to finalise some elements. In particular, we had to practice our lines and learn to use the space in our set. At first, it was hard. The only experience acting experience I had was watching my elementary school’s “Christmas Concert” year after year.  I had no idea where to start. 

Suddenly, the tournament came sooner than I expected. However, I knew we were ready. We had our fair share of problems though! Our bookshelf (a piece of our microworld scenery) was leaning, we had to remake a stick for the mechanism, and we somehow lost the tablecloth for our table! 

Despite this, we were able to make it through and perform! Our bookshelf may have fallen over mid-performance, but I think we learned a lot! At least this time, I didn’t burnout as bad as last year!

After the tournament, I enjoyed a celebratory lunch and some bubble tea!

Reflecting back on this experience, I’ve learned a lot of things. Destination Imagination has been the project where I’ve had to adapt and collaborate the most. Although it gets really hard at times, the end result is always satisfying. 

Here’s some feedback from the appraisers:

As a team, we talked about the work we completed and our presentation. In conclusion, we all felt pretty good, but there’s always ways we could improve.  

In the end, we placed first in our category! I’m super proud of the work we’ve accomplished!

That’s the end of Destination Imagination for this year! What an adventure! 

Our team also entered into the DI car parade, here’s our magical unicorn car!

We made him with our leftover leaves + puffballs. We also made a unicorn horn out of cardboard, and I wrapped it with colourful paper. The ears are two plates (as well as the eyes.)

Very cute 💕💕💕